Saving the Girl Next Door

by Susan Kearney

  “I didn’t realize your folks were that protective.”

  “Mom always worried about my safety, more so after the fire that burned our house down. And as a college professor, Dad knows too much about randy teenage boys and their raging hormones.”

  Jack popped the trunk and removed their luggage. “I’m surprised they let you even talk to a wild kid like me.”

  “They didn’t worry because…you weren’t interested.” She said the words lightly. “However, they might spend a sleepless night if they knew we’d just spent several hours together naked.”

  Her words sent heat straight to his groin, and he stifled a groan. Did she have to keep reminding him how great she looked without her clothes? Of course, she looked good in her clothes, too. Hell, she looked good, period. Good enough to dream about—especially when she’d made it quite clear that she would welcome him into her room, her bed, her arms.

  Jack almost demanded that the desk clerk give them rooms at opposite ends of the motel. But he couldn’t do that in good conscience. While he didn’t believe she was in danger, he might be wrong.

  Just the way he’d been wrong about his being able to think about her the same way he used to—as a kid. A pest. Like the little sister he’d never had.

  She’d grown up on him, but in some ways she hadn’t changed at all. She still enjoyed pestering him, and she still knew how to press his hot buttons. Only, now she didn’t just irritate and exasperate—she also titillated, tempted and tantalized him with a sexy honesty that left him on edge.

  He needed a drink. He needed a woman. Any woman but her. Since that wasn’t going to happen, he had only one solution—he intended to work through what was left of the night.

  They each entered their rooms. Through the thin walls he could hear her moving around, taking a shower. While he set up the laptop and checked the progress of Ryker’s program back at the Payne house, he tried not to think about the water sluicing over her tanned skin or the not-so-tanned parts where her swimsuit kept her flesh white and creamy. The contrast had automatically drawn his gaze to her breasts and he’d had to fight to keep his eyes focused on the road. But now he could imagine her back arching as she raised her arms to wash her hair. As she tipped up her face to the water, it would slide down over her, caressing and stroking the tempting flesh that he wouldn’t allow himself to touch.

  The words in the files on the screen in front of him blurred.

  Concentrate.

  Working was futile. How could he think when his imagination wouldn’t let go? He envisioned the water droplets trickling down her cheek and sliding over her neck to the tips of her rosy breasts. He would delicately lick the nipple, and she would thread her fingers through his hair, tug him closer.

  Damn.

  He slapped the laptop screen down. No point in trying to work. No point in avoiding the fact that his body was as sexually charged as he’d ever been.

  Since he had no intention of satisfying his urges—not with Piper—he had only a few alternatives. Physical exhaustion might do the trick. A run on the beach would take off this edge, then a long swim back should cool him down.

  Except he didn’t want to leave her alone. The danger might be minimal, but he couldn’t take the risk.

  He changed out of his jeans and shirt into loose running shorts that could double as a swimsuit—not that he expected to meet many people, unless they were awake to watch the sun rise in a couple of hours. There was no reason he couldn’t jog back and forth on the beach, never going out of shouting range.

  Jack stepped through a sliding glass door that faced the beach. A light breeze wafted across the still waters of the Gulf, which lapped gently on the powdered sand. A crescent moon, a very bright Venus and a dull, red-hued Mars lit the early-morning sky.

  He breathed in the salty air that reminded him of home. When he was away on a mission he always thought of home—not the house where he and his parents had lived, but the beach. The beach was where he’d come to eat and swim and play. He also liked the quiet moments like this where he could think.

  He’d always dreamed of traveling across oceans, visiting other continents and experiencing other cultures. But this beach couldn’t be beaten for the dreams it represented. Dreams he’d accomplished—almost every one.

  Despite his parents’ belief that he was a spendthrift, Jack was set for life. He needn’t ever work again if he chose not to. But he had great friends, a career he loved. So why was he feeling edgy and as though he could do so much more if only he opened himself to new experiences and possibilities?

  As experienced as Jack was with women, he didn’t think much could surprise him anymore. Yet his attraction to Piper had him startled by its intensity. He decided to put it down to forbidden fruit—greener pastures that couldn’t be explored.

  If necessary, he could deal with the sexual frustration on his own. But the emotional side of this attraction left him almost shell-shocked. The surfacing of protective urges that he hadn’t known he had sent him for a loop. Jack usually looked out for Jack and his team. He risked his life on missions, often without even knowing the people under fire that he flew in to save.

  With Piper, he could recall her every expression. Shock as her eyes widened after he said something outrageous. Amusement as her mouth turned up. Mischievousness as her eyes brightened when she teased him. But it was the heat in her emerald eyes, the passion she offered, that almost did him in.

  Jack wasn’t the right type of guy for a woman like Piper. He worked hard and played hard, and in between, he didn’t have room in his life to make another person happy. If Piper didn’t know this basic fact about him, he did.

  Protecting her from himself was ludicrous. If the guys on his team could see him right now, they’d never let him hear the end of it. Because Jack did what felt good. Jack took the easy way in and out of bed—and he never looked back, never had regrets. As he pounded up and down the beach, his body breaking into a sweat, he wanted to blame the fact that he and Piper had been childhood friends for his protective feelings now. And he almost convinced himself.

  Even now, instead of settling into a slow and easy jog, he pushed his body, anxious to tire himself quickly—just so he could get back to her and make sure she was safe. He plunged into the warm Gulf water, but swam only a few yards. He needed to stay close—in case she needed him.

  With a disgusted curse, he rose from the water and headed back to his room. To find her curled up and sleeping in the middle of his bed.

  “JACK?” PIPER LIFTED her head from the pillow. Jack had come in through the sliding glass door. Half-awake, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she thought he looked like a sea god with his bare chest and muscular legs, his hair slicked back.

  “What are you doing here, Pest?”

  “I must have fallen asleep.”

  He grabbed a towel from around his neck and dried his face. He looked chiseled from granite, his face hard with attitude, his body larger than life, his eyes dark blue chips of ice. “You haven’t answered my question.”

  He didn’t look happy to see her. In fact, he looked totally unlike the Jack she knew, practically downright hostile.

  She stopped rubbing her eyes and stretched. “How was I supposed to sleep with all the beeping coming from your room?”

  “What beeping?”

  “Your computer was making enough racket to wake the dead. So I came in here to find out what was up.”

  “How’d you get in?”

  “I picked the lock.”

  “You?”

  “One of the criminals I arrested showed me how,” she admitted.

  “And when you discovered that I wasn’t here?”

  “Well, the computer stopped making noise, but I thought it might be important, so I decided to stay so I could tell you about it.”

  “You could have left me a note.”

  “I thought of that,” she admitted. “But I don’t like sleeping in a strange bed.”

  He jerke
d his thumb at the bed. “This one is just as strange as the one in your room and you had no trouble sleeping here.”

  “That’s because I knew you were coming back.” She grinned, knowing it would irritate him almost as much as her answer.

  “That is the most illogical, irrational thing you’ve ever said.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “You aren’t making sense.”

  “Sure I am.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder and gave him her best you-can-do-better look. “You just don’t want to understand.”

  He gave a disgusted grunt, then fisted his hands on his hips in what she thought of as his tough-guy pose. “Okay. You told me about the beeping. I’ll check it later. Right now I’m going to take a shower—”

  “Can I watch?” She said the most outrageous thing she could think of just to get deeper under his skin. She hoped he might swat her with the towel or laugh or tease her back. Instead, he blushed again. In the bright light of the room his tanned cheeks definitely turned red this time. Only, she had no idea why.

  “Go back to your room, Pest.”

  “But—”

  “Go.” He fired the command like a bullet.

  “Okay, okay, I’m going.” She ambled toward the sliding glass door, and he didn’t wait to see if she kept going. He stalked into the bathroom and slammed the door—another most un-Jack-like reaction.

  How had she made him blush? What could he be doing in that shower that could have caused him to react like a teenage boy caught with his nose in a Playboy centerfold?

  Oh, my. Could she really be having that much of an effect on him that Jack had to resort to… Halfway to her room, she turned around. She entered Jack’s room and slipped back into his bed. Annoying him as a child had been fun, but annoying him as a woman was positively delicious.

  If she’d been bolder, she might have tested the bathroom door to see if he’d locked it behind him. She didn’t think he had, but she couldn’t summon up the courage to walk in. But she wanted to…because maybe if she caught him off guard, he’d give them what they both wanted.

  Jack took a long shower, so long that she thought he must be trying to use up all the motel’s hot water. She might have actually fallen asleep again, except that once more his computer began to beep annoyingly.

  With a sigh she climbed out of bed and opened the laptop’s screen. Surely even she could lower the volume on the desktop, so the beeping wouldn’t get them kicked out of the motel. It was a wonder that the people on the other side hadn’t complained.

  She didn’t recognize any of the symbols on the desktop. He didn’t use Windows, but an operating system that she was totally unfamiliar with.

  When Jack exited the bathroom with a towel around his hips and saw her, he rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. A smile played at the corner of his mouth. Apparently his “shower” had calmed his irritation with her.

  She’d just have to heat him up again. But first she wanted answers about the infernal beeping machine. “Doesn’t this thing have an off button?”

  Jack reached over her shoulder and hit a function key. The beeping stopped.

  “Thanks.” She realized he thought she’d returned because of the beeping. Well, she’d let him continue to think so for a while. “So why is it beeping and, please, don’t tell me the battery is low.”

  “Can’t.” He pointed to an electric socket. “I’ve got it plugged in to electricity.”

  “Did it find something about my case?”

  Jack pulled up a chair and began to type. “Let’s have a look.”

  “WELL, WHAT DID the program find?” Piper asked, obviously impatient for answers.

  Jack wished he could satisfy her curiosity. As he scrolled through pages of data, he shrugged. “The system has found nothing in common between the two citizens who accused you of bribery.”

  Piper frowned at the laptop as if it was at fault. “Then why was it beeping?”

  Jack rubbed his neck. “It was telling me the search needs new parameters.”

  “In English, please.” She brushed his hands aside and rubbed his sore neck. Her fingers seemed to find the kinks and knots without much trouble, freeing his hands to type on the keyboard.

  “The computer hasn’t finished searching every clue, but the program is suggesting we are on the wrong track.”

  “Does it suggest where to look next?” she asked sarcastically. He couldn’t blame her. He was disappointed, also. But he wasn’t ready to give up. Unlike her, he’d seen the program work wonders.

  “As a matter of fact—it does.”

  “Look, Dad teaches computer science and I’ve learned enough from him to know that machines don’t think.”

  Jack bit back a groan as her fingers unkinked a sore spot. “I told you that the man who designed this program is a genius. He assigned probabilities to different scenarios. And by calculating the odds statistically—”

  “Jack.” She rubbed harder and yawned. “It’s late. Or early.” She glanced at the light brightening the night sky and heralding a new day. “Just explain the computer stuff to me in words of less than two or three syllables, if possible.”

  He’d give it a try. “The computer’s parameters indicate a high probability that—”

  “Jack, in English.”

  “The charges against you were, probably, number one—personal. Number two—made by someone with a grudge. And three—made by someone who is an expert in computer technology or programming.”

  “I don’t know anyone like that. Is the program giving us names to check out?”

  “I’m afraid the program is not that specific.” Jack typed some more. He could tell that Piper wasn’t impressed, but she didn’t understand the equations inside the machine. Ryker had programmed each factor to weigh in by using crime statistics from the police, FBI and CIA. Not only could the machine follow a money trail, but it could also tell whether your next-door neighbor—or your brother—was more apt to have an affair with your wife than the mailman was.

  “The computer has checked through every felon you put behind bars. Only one of them has the computer skills to pull off a hack into the police department.”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t need the computer for that. His name is Eddie Rickel. I’ve already checked him out. He doesn’t have Internet access in jail.”

  “Maybe he has a friend on the outside.”

  “Maybe.”

  “The computer program believes there is a high probability that whoever burned down your parents’ house and whoever framed you is the same person.”

  “Oh, come on.” She shook her head again. This time she also stopped rubbing and frowned down at him. “I don’t see it. One crime was arson and the other takes computer skills.”

  “Don’t forget the fire at Leroy’s house tonight.” Jack flipped off the screen and straddled his chair, causing her to stop rubbing his neck, a massage he was enjoying all too much and which semidistracted him from fully concentrating. “Did you check your mother’s old police cases?”

  “Yes. I went through years of files.” She sat on the bed opposite him. “They weren’t all closed, and I actually took over a few of them after I made detective. But none were computer crimes.”

  He tried a different tack. “Your father teaches computer science at the university, right?”

  “He’s had hundreds of students go through his classes. It’s impossible to narrow them down, but I checked the ones who failed his courses or might have carried a grudge,” she protested. “Besides, why would they want me to be fired?”

  “Well, you were unofficially investigating the arson at your folks’ house.”

  “So I was poking around and asking a few questions? Big deal.”

  “Suppose you were getting too close to figuring out who did it?”

  “So they hack into the police computers, convince two citizens to accuse me of taking a bribe to get me pulled off the case? I’m sure your computer could figure out that scenario isn’
t too likely.”

  “I guess.”

  “Besides, I never was close to figuring out who burned down the house. The insurance company and the fire department also looked into it. None of us found anything solid. My regular job kept me too busy to dig very deep.”

  “When exactly did the house burn down?” he asked.

  “A year ago. While my parents were on vacation. I was living in an apartment at the time. There doesn’t seem to be any connection. Your computer isn’t making much sense.”

  She sounded so hopeless that Jack would have tried to cheer her up even if he hadn’t disagreed. “We just haven’t tied all the angles together yet. I want to speak with your father tomorrow. There may be a way to narrow down which students we should talk to.”

  “How?”

  “Well, for starters, we could find out who is still in the area. And also which students had the capability to hack into the police department. That’s not easy. So it would have to be someone brilliant. Advanced students. Someone your father will likely remember.”

  “Do you think my folks could be in danger?”

  “Let’s not jump to conclusions. Have they had any other trouble this past year? Any car accidents? Close calls?”

  She shook her head. “I know that you’re trying to help, but this seems like a wild-goose chase.”

  “In my experience, most investigations start out that way. We still need to speak to Leroy and his mistress. We’ll keep digging until we get to the bottom of this mystery. Give Ryker’s program a chance to work. And once Adam sends us his profile, it should help us narrow down our suspects.”

  “Jack?”

  “What?”

  “Do you think I should just move on with my life? Forget about the police department and clearing my name?”

  “Give up? That’s not like you.”

  “I just wonder if I’m being dumb for trying to hang on—”

  “To a job that you loved? I don’t think so. But what I think doesn’t matter. What do you want?”

  She drew her legs up to her chest under her T-shirt and wrapped her arms around them. Only her toes stuck out, and she curled them under her feet as if withdrawing into herself. He didn’t like seeing her so vulnerable. He much preferred to see her sassy, strong. Even pestering him was preferable.