One-Click Buy: June 2009 Harlequin Blaze

by Tori Carrington

  2

  IT WAS nearly midnight when Jase Campbell descended the steps of a small private jet at LaGuardia Airport. After nearly a month in the bowels of the steamy Amazon jungle, he welcomed the stiff breeze that had made their landing a little rough. New York City’s humidity level couldn’t even begin to compete with what he’d been experiencing.

  The Cessna was the third plane he’d been on in the last twenty-four hours and the only one that had provided any amenities. Thanks to Federman Corporation, the company that had hired him as a consultant in their efforts to free three hostages, he’d been able to shower, shave and even change his clothes—luxuries that he’d sorely missed.

  The one thing he hadn’t been able to do was catch much sleep. The last days of the mission were still too fresh in his mind. It had only been partially successful—one of the men hadn’t made it out of the jungle. Each time he closed his eyes, his mind would run through the other options he might have used, other tacks he might have taken with the captors.

  He needed sleep, Jase told himself as he strode up the steps of the terminal building. Thank heavens his apartment was only a thirty-minute cab ride. And at this hour of the night, Jordan would be sound asleep. That would save him from being cross-examined on what he’d been doing for the last three and a half weeks.

  Jordan and he had been friends since they’d been undergraduates together at Wharton. His lips curved as he recalled exactly how they’d met. He’d been a senior and she a freshman. Off-campus housing had been at a premium, and they’d arrived to view an apartment at the same time. They’d each wanted to sign a lease, so the landlord had suggested they flip a coin. Jordan had flatly refused, claiming that her luck was abominable. Instead, she’d suggested that they share the place and split expenses.

  For Jase it had been an ideal solution. Unlike a lot of the trust-fund students, he’d come to Wharton on a scholarship. Jordan had drawn up a set of rules to follow so that they kept out of each other’s way. The list with its bullets and highlighted passages had been Jase’s introduction to the highly organized world of Jordan Ware.

  And though she was a very attractive woman, their relationship had never progressed down a more intimate path. Instead, she’d become like a sister to him, competing against him for grades, nagging him when he’d gotten so wrapped up in a project that he’d forgotten to keep in touch with his family and even criticizing his selection of dates. In Jordan’s opinion, Jase had a tendency to attract what she’d termed “psycho babes.”

  Jase’s lips curved at the memory. The first thing he’d done when he’d left the navy and decided to set up a security business in New York City was to call Jordan. His goal had been to enlist her help in finding an apartment. Instead, she’d suggested he move in with her. If it didn’t work out, he’d at least have more time to find a place of his own. That had been a year ago, and so far everything had gone very smoothly. Jordan, who’d worked for her mother’s jewelry design studio since she’d gotten her master’s degree, had put him in touch with a few clients, and he’d even done some work for Eva Ware Designs. In fact, there was a job he’d left hanging when he’d taken on the hostage-negotiation project.

  Once he entered the terminal, Jase glanced around, spotted a secluded niche and headed toward it. Before he caught a cab, he needed some privacy to check in at his office. He’d been out of contact for far too long, and his patchwork of odd flights home hadn’t allowed any calls. Even at this hour, there’d be someone at Campbell and Angelis Security picking up the phone. With any luck, it might even be Dino Angelis, his partner of six months.

  Sure enough, someone answered on the second ring.

  “Campbell and Angelis Security.”

  Jase frowned as he tried to place the familiar voice. Not Dino. His partner’s voice was much deeper and he didn’t speak with a drawl. But it couldn’t be who he thought it was. His brother D.C. was currently serving with the military police on a second tour of duty in Baghdad.

  “D.C.?” Jase asked.

  “At your service. Where are you? Dino and I were getting worried.”

  “I’m at La Guardia. What are you doing in my office?”

  “Since I got here two days ago, I’ve been holding down the fort and helping Dino out. Got my leg busted up a little, and the army decided that I should take some leave time while I got it back in shape.”

  Jase frowned. “How bad is the leg?”

  “Nothing that can’t be fixed.”

  “Does Mom know?”

  “I spent a week in Baltimore and let her pamper me. I gained at least five pounds while I checked out Darcy’s latest boyfriend.”

  Some of Jase’s tension eased. If his brother had the time and energy to torment their kid sister, then he must be on the mend.

  “Are you going to tell me how bad the leg is?”

  “You’re as bad as Mom. It’s going to be fine. With any luck I’ll be back in Iraq by Christmas.”

  Jase didn’t see that as lucky. But he knew he’d gotten as much out of D.C. on the subject of his injury as he was going to. “Let’s go back to my first question. What exactly are you doing in my office? And where’s Dino?”

  “I came to pay you a surprise visit and Dino offered me a temporary job. Right now I believe he’s at his fiancée’s apartment.”

  It was thanks to Dino’s pretty fiancée Cat McGuire that Jase had been able to persuade Dino, his old navy buddy, to become his partner last December.

  “Where are you staying?”

  “Dino fixed me up temporarily with an empty apartment in their building. Not that I get to spend much time there.”

  “Business is good, I take it?” Jase asked.

  “So good that you’ve been missed, bro.”

  More of Jase’s tension eased. If Campbell and Angelis had to take on some extra help, Dino couldn’t have found a more perfect person than D.C. His brother had a sharp and inventive mind and the kind of intuition that made for an excellent cop. Unable to stop himself, he yawned hugely. What he needed even more than a good night’s sleep was work. One lesson he’d learned when he’d been working special ops was that the best way to dim the images from the previous operation was to immerse yourself totally in a new one.

  “By the way, your roommate, Jordan Ware, has been trying to contact you. Mom told me that the two of you are sharing an apartment again.”

  “When? What did she want?”

  “About a week ago. She talked to Dino and asked him to pass on a message to contact her if you called in.”

  Once again, Jase frowned. Jordan never called him at work. Then he pushed the small worry aside. No doubt she’d called the office because his cell phone had been worthless where he’d been for the last few weeks. At any rate, he’d see her sometime tomorrow.

  “Hold down the fort. If Dino calls in, tell him I’ll be in the office tomorrow afternoon.” Once Dino brought him up to speed on all their active files, he knew exactly which case he would start on. He’d promised Eva Ware that he’d look further into that break-in and robbery at her Madison Avenue jewelry store. In his opinion, it had to have been an inside job, and that worried him a bit.

  “Right now, my aim is to crash for at least twelve hours,” Jase said, then added, “Thanks for covering.”

  “I live to serve.”

  A BIT DIZZY from sleep deprivation and jet lag, Maddie let herself into Jordan’s Soho apartment. During the last few days, she’d managed to lose all sense of time. The only reason she knew that it was shortly after midnight was because she’d asked the cab driver who’d driven her from JFK.

  According to her estimate, she’d spent nearly eighteen of the last forty-eight hours on an airplane. Severe thunderstorms in the midwest had delayed her flights both to and back from Santa Fe. She’d barely been at the ranch long enough to pack what she thought she’d need for a three-week stay in New York. Jordan, the lucky girl, had only had to make one flight.

  In the very short time they’d spent toget
her before Jordan had insisted she immediately fly back to the ranch and set things in order for the switch, Maddie had learned that her sister was a ruthlessly organized woman who gathered data, made lists, assembled files and was quite used to having her “suggestions” followed. Had Eva Ware been like that? Maddie wondered. Would she ever know? She hoped that Jordan was right and that by switching lives each of them would come to know the other parent better. But she was beginning to feel a sense of loss that she would never have a chance to talk to Eva about her design process.

  And Jordan would never hear Mike Farrell’s laugh.

  Not that her sister wouldn’t discover as much as she could about the ranch and their father. The woman was meticulous. She couldn’t think of one thing that had escaped Jordan’s attention. Jordan had even suggested that since Maddie possessed very few outfits appropriate for the city and Jordan experienced the same lack of wardrobe for ranch life, they could borrow clothes from one another and cut down on what they needed to pack. Maddie figured that was Jordan’s subtle way of letting her know not to appear at Eva Ware Designs in her jeans and boots.

  Yawning hugely, she muscled her suitcase through the door, then sagged against it for a moment, nearly paralyzed with exhaustion.

  “Just a few more minutes,” she muttered. “You can do it.”

  She groped blindly along the wall until she located a switch. The muted light from a Tiffany-style lamp allowed her only a shadowy impression of the living room—stained-glass-fronted bookcases flanking a brick fireplace, an antique desk, a comfy-looking leather couch and a flat-screen TV. The furnishings with their mix of the feminine and the masculine suddenly reminded her about Jordan’s roommate—Jase Campbell.

  The man’s image slipped instantly into her mind. Jordan had provided her with photos of everyone she might possibly meet during her three weeks in New York, and she’d been reviewing them one by one on the long flight from Santa Fe. From the moment she’d glanced at Jase’s picture, she hadn’t quite been able to get him out of her mind.

  Maddie recalled Jordan describing Jase as a big brother. They’d been friends ever since they’d roomed off-campus together in college, and when he’d left the navy to start up his own security firm here in New York, he and Jordan had hooked up as roommates again. Jordan’s description of her relationship with Jase Campbell could have fit her own relationship with her neighbor, Cash.

  However, as Maddie had studied Jase’s photo, her response to him had been anything but sisterly. He had a strong face, lean with sharply defined bones. And though he wore a jacket and a tie, he didn’t look quite…tamed. Perhaps it was the longish, windblown hair that hinted at a streak of recklessness. Or maybe it was the eyes. She was baffled by the fact that every single time she’d closed her own eyes and tried to sleep on the plane, she’d thought of those angled cheekbones, the strong jawline and firm lips.

  And each time his image had popped into her mind, her palms had tingled with the desire to touch his face. When she’d imagined herself doing just that, a heat had begun to build inside her. She’d even foolishly given into an impulse to run her fingertips over the image in the photo—touching first his mouth, then the rest of those sharp features.

  When the heat simmering inside her had rushed to her face, she’d glanced nervously around to see if anyone had witnessed what she’d done. To her great relief, everyone within sight had been sleeping. Something she herself should have been doing. But instead of slipping the photo back into the file, she’d glanced down at it again.

  And traced her fingertips over it once more. Her desire to touch the image, to touch him was baffling…and unprecedented. She’d experienced a purely chemical reaction to a man before. But no man’s photo had ever affected her in such a physical way.

  Perhaps it was because she hadn’t had any sex in a while. During the past year, between the plans she had to expand her jewelry design business and the extra work she’d had to take on at the ranch, she simply hadn’t had the time. Or the desire.

  Yawning again, Maddie struggled against a huge wave of exhaustion as she turned and dragged her suitcase down a narrow hallway. The effort of placing one foot in front of the other almost defeated her.

  Probably her whole odd reaction to Jase Campbell’s photo was due to sleep deprivation and the emotional whirlwind she’d been caught up in during the past few days. When she met him, she’d find him a pleasant man, and her unusual and highly sensual response to his photo would turn out to be much ado about nothing.

  Not that meeting Jase was a sure thing. Jordan had mentioned that for the last three and a half weeks he’d been out of the country and out of contact. So she had no idea when he’d be back.

  Maddie stopped short at the first door she came to, not sure if she could take another step. If she didn’t find a bedroom soon, she was simply going to curl right up on the floor. She bit back a groan when the door to her left opened onto a tiny bathroom. Putting all her effort into the move, she half stumbled into the room directly across the hall. There was just enough moonlight pouring through the window for her to make out a bed. Not bothering to turn on the light, she shoved her suitcase against the wall. Unpacking would have to wait. Using the foot of the bed as her guide, she moved to the side nearest the window and pulled the drapes. Then she stripped down to her tank top and panties. With the last bit of energy she could summon up, she tugged just enough of the covers back to slip beneath them. The moment her head touched the pillow, she fell abruptly into sleep.

  IT WAS nearly one when Jase let himself into the apartment. At some point during the taxi ride from La Guardia, the adrenaline that had fueled him for the last few weeks had drained away as surely as if someone had pulled a plug. Setting his duffel down, he shut the door and locked it. Then, without turning on the lights, he made his way to his bedroom, shed his clothes, eased back the covers, and climbed in. Sleep claimed him before his head settled fully into the pillow.

  THE DREAM came slowly, slipping into his mind as a lover might slip into his bed. A woman, soft and warm, was nestled against him. With lazy pleasure, he let himself drift in sensations, absorbing each one. The press of a palm against his chest, the silky length of a thigh trapped between his. And the scent—he had to draw her closer to place it—he’d caught that fragrance before on drives through the country—a mix of wildflowers and sunshine.

  When she sighed and snuggled closer, Jase ran a hand from her shoulder to her thigh and back again, absorbing the contrasting textures of smooth, soft skin and rougher cotton. Desire tugged at him when she pressed against him and her hands moved to slide over his back.

  Drifting with the sensations, Jase touched his mouth to her temple and slipped his hand beneath her shirt. The throaty sound of pleasure she made when he cupped her breast had the tug of desire turning into a sharp pull. Nothing would be simpler than to give in to the temptation to shift her onto her back and make a place for himself between her legs. To thrust into her and lose himself in her.

  But equally tempting was the thought of exploring her more thoroughly and discovering how far the dream would take him. Slowly, he ran his hand from her breast down the taut length of her torso, over that firm, narrow waist until he could slip his fingers beneath the band of her panties. The soft moan she made when he found her heat and began to stroke her urged him to take his mouth on a leisurely journey over her face from her temple to jawline and back again. Her breath was hitching now and she began to arch faster and faster against his hand. Desire pulled even more strongly against his control. But first…first, he wanted to take more, to give her more. He traced her mouth with his tongue, then began to tease her lips with his. When he finally allowed himself to fully taste her, the flavor was so sweet, so potent, that he thought he might never get enough. Taking the kiss ever deeper, he slipped two fingers into her and felt her soar.

  THE ORGASM shot through Maddie in one glorious wave after another until she was sure she was going to drown. When she finally surfaced, she
had only a few moments of respite, barely enough time to register what that clever mouth was doing to hers before those long hard fingers began to move inside her again. She’d never dreamed anything this vividly before. Even as the incredible pressure began to build once more, other sensations bombarded her. She inhaled his scent, something dark and male. The sharp nip of his teeth on her bottom lip. And his body—it was so hot that she felt as if it was branding her at each and every contact point.

  The second orgasm was sharper than the first, and before it peaked, he was there, just where she wanted him to be, thrusting into her. And then they began to move together.

  Yes, she thought as she wrapped arms and legs around him. This was what she wanted—this wild, fast race. This was what she’d always wanted, and no one had been ever able to give it to her before. Holding on for dear life, she rode the climax, rode him, until they leapt over that final crest together.

  3

  MADDIE DRIFTED UP slowly through layers of sleep, trying to hold on to each one. The dream she’d been having was so wonderful, so real. With each breath, she drew in her lover’s scent—potent, male. His arm held her close, and she felt the length of that hard body pressed against her. The sensations were vivid enough to have her blood heating all over again.

  She wanted more than anything to sink back into the dream so that he would touch her, tempt her, tease her again. But there was light beyond her closed eyelids and she could hear muted sounds. Motors rumbling, brakes squealing…

  Traffic? Frowning, she struggled to remember.

  The insistent beep of a horn, louder than the others, triggered a kaleidoscope of memories. Her sister, the terms of her mother’s will, the endless series of plane rides, the detailed files Jordan had insisted she study.

  The horn blasted again.

  She definitely wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Nor was she at the ranch in Santa Fe. She was in her sister’s New York City apartment. The last thing she clearly recalled was dragging her suitcase into the closest bedroom and falling into bed.