Under Wraps (14 page)

She wavered on her feet, still wrapped in a fur from the sleigh that bastard had used to abduct her. The damage Jake had done with his fists hadn't come close to satisfying his need to tear the guy apart. When he'd first heard her tell the police that Mason had held a gun to
her head, Rico had to keep Jake from hunting down the cop car the scumbag sat in so he could finish him off.

For now, he tried to put that out of his mind to be the kind of man Marnie needed. The kind of man she deserved.

“We're free to go,” he told her, sliding an arm around her waist to lead her out of the lobby. “And we've got a safe, quiet room we can stay in here. The police contacted the owner of the Marquis and he's canceling the entertainments for a few days while the cops check out the computer systems. They're assigning a guard to your room to be sure no one bothers you.”

Jake had personally made sure of that. He wished he could take her far from here, but the road crews hadn't made much of a dent in clearing the snowfall.

Marnie nodded, allowing him to lead her toward the back of the resort where a handful of rooms overlooked a paddock containing the owner's horses. Jake had checked out the accommodations ahead of time to be sure the windows locked. Logic told him everyone involved with the embezzlement was now in police custody, including the two goons who'd grabbed her in the card room. But for his peace of mind, he'd need windows that locked—preferably, the kind that had bars across them, too.

“How did you find me?” she asked as he opened the door to a suite decked out in Tudor decor.

A marble fireplace rested across the room from a four-poster bed draped in quilted burgundy-colored satin. The tea cart held pewter goblets and silver-domed
dishes that likely contained the breakfast he'd requested for her.

“Rico's twin was working undercover here. And actually their names aren't Rico and Raul. They're Rick and Rafe.” Jake locked the suite door and bolted it, then sat her on the edge of the bed before he pushed the tea cart close so she could eat. “Apparently Rafe had been tracking a perp named A. J. Marks.”

Marnie ignored the food and the juice goblets to pour herself a cup of hot tea.

“Another alias for Alec.” Her dark eyes searched his.

“Right. And he had intel that said Marks was meeting up with his crew here, so he called Rick to let him know he might be following a suspect tonight. The other guy from the closet. And wouldn't you know, Rick and I were just trying to figure out where Alec would have taken you, so we banked on the fact that Alec and A.J. were one and the same.”

“But how did you get here faster than the horses?”

“Turns out our bed-and-breakfast hostess keeps some kick-ass snowmobiles in her shed. There's a wide-open trail that follows the power lines between the inn and the resort, so I took off after you on a more direct route to the hotel, closer to the highway. Rick followed with Lianna and they got here about five minutes after me. We made a lot faster time on the sleds in the open fields, not having to guide a horse through the trees.”

They'd met up with Rafe, who had already taken care of the other goon after trailing him to the meeting point. Marnie hadn't arrived for about five minutes more after
that. The time had stretched so impossibly long that Jake thought he'd lose his mind. He'd second-guessed his decision to head them off here a hundred times in those frigid cold moments while he waited in the snow and the dark.

The kicker was that he wouldn't have even known where to find her if not for Rick's twin working the case from another angle. More proof that he'd failed Marnie.

Something he couldn't afford to do again.

“I wasn't careful enough,” Marnie confessed between sips of tea. She must have warmed up a little because the fur blanket fell to the bed, unheeded. “I stayed by the door to listen to what was happening in Lianna's room and because of that, I never heard Alec coming.”

“It wasn't your job to be careful.” Shaking his head, he buttered a slice of toast and offered it to her. “That's what I was getting paid for.”

She accepted the bread, but didn't take a bite.

“No. You were trying to find the embezzler. Protecting me was never part of your responsibility.”

“It damn well should have been.” He couldn't begin to explain the sick feeling eating away at him because he hadn't kept her safe.

His gaze tracked the delicate curve of her jaw, the fall of her tousled red hair starting to show its warm, natural caramel color at the roots. She wore a pink T-shirt and blue pajama pants with pink hearts. Hell, she'd been dragged through the mountains in those clothes.

“Jake, you were here.” Setting down the toast, she reached for him. Brushed a hand along his bicep until his
muscle twitched with awareness. “I knew you would find me. The whole time, the only thing that really scared me was the fear that something would happen to you when you came for me.”

Her concern melted a warm spot in his chest. The sensation was so strong, so damn real, he had to touch the spot for himself to see if he was still holding together there.

“I'm an ex-Marine. A former cop. And enough of a general badass that people don't tend to worry about me.” His forehead tipped to hers of its own accord, his need to be with her so tangible he didn't know how he'd ever be able to walk away from her once they got back home.

“I'm not just anyone,” she reminded him, her dark eyes shining. “I care about you, Jake. So much.”

Maybe if he'd been better at relationships—or more wise in the way of women—he would have known what to say. But her soft admission caught him off guard.

And scared him far more than any crook with a gun.

Straightening, he tried to find the words that would keep the situation from getting any more awkward.

“Marnie, I—”

Her fingertips brushed his lips, quieting him.

“I need to say this,” she assured him. “I know we started out kind of rocky between you thinking I was a felon and all the spying on me without me knowing. But you chose the most efficient means to clear me, and I'm glad now that you did.”

Jake's mouth was dry as dust, so interrupting her now
wasn't an option. Besides, maybe part of him couldn't believe where she might be headed with all this.

“But something changed for me this week. You made me realize what I felt for Alec—even before we broke up—was just a shadow of how much I could care about someone.”

By now, his brain blared with code red sirens and somehow he got his tongue engaged before this situation careened any more out of control.

“Marnie, I can't—that is—I care about you, too.” He mirrored her gesture, swiping a finger across her lips. “My lifestyle has always been dangerous. And I like it that way. But this week? When you were at risk? I didn't like that one bit.”

He'd never been so freaking scared. And he'd worked some hairy situations in his day.

“I don't understand.” She shook her head, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Alec's going to jail. We can go back home—”

“Exactly. We can go back to our lives before all this happened. You'll be safe at your business and you can spend Christmas with your family. And I'll be grateful as hell knowing you're okay.”

Far removed from firearms and violence—basically, all the things that had become staples in his life over the past ten years. This was what he was good at. Too bad the job didn't allow him to rope off his personal life and keep it safe from his professional world.

“You want to go back to the way things were before.” The softness in her voice was gone. With her shoulders straight and her fingers laced together, she reminded him
of the way she looked when she was behind the counter at Lose Yourself. Professional. In control.

And yeah, distant.

Hard to believe that was what he'd been going for. With regret, he kissed her forehead and nudged her breakfast tray closer.

“Yes. I think that would be—” painful “—for the best.”

“Y
OU'RE A COP
?”

Lianna tried to remind herself this wasn't a cross-examination and that Rick had been instrumental in helping nab a bad guy.

She paced the floor of a freebie suite assigned to her by the owner of the Marquis as a thank-you for her role in capturing a criminal who'd bilked the hotel. Lianna found it frustrating to think that Rick had still been hiding behind a mask the night before when they'd been together.

Her heart had been totally engaged, some long-buried romantic side of her thrilling to the idea that Rick wanted to peel away the pretense and touch the woman beneath. All the while, he'd kept a big part of himself secret.

She'd slept alone for a few hours after they gave their statements to the local police. Rick had told her he needed to help his brother tie up a few loose ends and she'd been so exhausted she hadn't argued. But when he'd knocked at her door a few minutes ago, she'd been ready for answers.

“Technically, yes.” Rick sat on the small sofa in her room with its Victorian-gone-deviant decor. Crushed red velvet wallpaper covered the walls between framed ink drawings of antique sex toys. A life-size mannequin of a Victorian nobleman sported a codpiece that would have made for one heck of a conversation starter if she'd been in the mood to discuss that sort of thing. Which she absolutely was not.

Right now, with the realization that Rick had been lying to her all along, her heart ached in a way no libido ever could.

“Meaning?” She had been questioned in a separate room from Rick, so she'd heard only sketchy bits of his statement to local police, and even that had been filtered through the chatter of half a dozen other witnesses to the showdown just before dawn.

“Meaning, that while I happen to be a cop in San Diego, I'm not here in a work capacity. I took a vacation week to help Rafe out. This was personal for him, since Alec swindled his wife out of her savings and duped her into thinking they'd elope.” Rick lowered an arm across the back of the small sofa, the heavy rope of muscles drawing her eye and reminding her what it felt like to have his arms around her.

She wanted to know his touch again, to feel the things only he could make her feel. Yet how could she be with someone who withheld the truth from her? Who might have only been with her for the sake of an investigation?

“So Rafe is a police officer, as well.” She tried to search for what had been true in the things Rick had told
her. “And what you said about coming here with him to forget about the wife who left him was at least partially accurate.”

“Well, I thought he'd get over her faster if he found the bastard who'd led her astray so we could send the guy's ass to jail. Yes. True enough.” His chin jutted forward, defensive. His jeans and T-shirt were rumpled as if he'd caught a few hours of sleep in a chair in the lobby.

Unfortunately for her, that didn't come close to dimming his appeal. Whereas Alec had been charming and slick, Rick was earthy and real. His dark good looks made it tough to even recall what Alec looked like.

She smoothed her hands over the simple lines of a long, forest-green dress she'd purchased in the boutique that morning since her suitcase remained back at the All Tucked Inn. The ankle-length outfit she wore now could have passed for a modern holiday dress if not for the laced-up cutout all down her back. But since she'd bought a white cashmere pashmina to wear like a sweater, no one could see the hint of skin beneath the laces.

“Then why didn't you tell me the truth last night after you learned Jake was a private investigator?” This was the part she kept coming back to, the idea that upset her most. Alec had used her. And while the two men were different in a fundamental way—one was a cop and one was a crook—she still worried they both saw her as nothing more than a pawn. Her fingers wove through the cashmere, clutching it in her clenched fists. “You must have known that Alec was the same guy you sought.”

Rick shook his head.

“Lianna, I wanted to explain everything. But I'd promised Rafe I'd keep cover until we found our guy, and my brother wasn't answering his phone last night for me to clear it with him.” He sat forward on the couch, his beautiful sea-blue eyes locked on her. “Besides, maybe I wanted to believe that outside stuff didn't matter. That you and I were already seeing what was real and important in each other. Did it change anything that you're a lawyer and that you live three thousand miles away from me? Or that I'm a Mexican-Irish cop who will drop everything if my family needs me?”

Rising, he closed the distance between them. Did he know how persuasive he was close up? Ah, who was she kidding? He'd done a damn good job of persuading her from across the room. She had the feeling he'd be equally compelling on a phone call from the west coast, too.

“I don't know.” She wasn't sure what to think anymore. “Maybe I'm just scared about getting involved with someone when I don't know them well. I spent half the week waiting to meet up with a guy who turned out to be a total fake.”

But Alec had lied to her for months, whereas Rick had only needed a couple of days before being upfront with her. And bottom line, Rick moved her in a way Alec never had.

“He didn't tell you who he was because he wanted to take advantage of you.” Rick brushed his hands over her shoulders, sweeping them under the pashmina to grip her arms. “I didn't tell you who I was to keep you safe.
Now you know everything and my life is an open book for you.”

The sincerity in his eyes couldn't be faked. She'd evaluated enough witnesses for trial appearances to know that. But what appealed to her most was the fact that he was still here, and he still wanted to be with her. Much of her worry had stemmed from the fear that his undercover work meant his time with her had all been a lie. That he'd only been with her as part of a job. But obviously, that wasn't the case.

Hope bloomed in her chest.

“Do you really have five brothers?” she asked, curious about the real Rick.

“Yes. My twin and four others, each one a bigger pain in the ass than the next.” The affection in his voice was clear no matter what he said, warmth lighting his gaze as he talked about them.

His touch skimmed down her back, loosening the cashmere around her shoulders as he drew her closer. Her heart rate stepped up a beat, the pace quickening at his nearness.

“Was your dad really a steelworker?”

“Straight from Pittsburgh before he moved out west and settled down. Why would I lie about that?” His strong fingers dipped lower, finding the laces over her spine that exposed bare skin. “And yes, he thinks dancing is for sissies. His words, not mine. Although I think I caught him watching
Dancing with the Stars
once when one of his football heroes competed.”

Lianna smiled, wondering about the family that had raised such a warm, wonderful man. A man who didn't
care one bit about her past, but seemed—she hoped—interested in her future.

As his touch threaded between the laces down her spine, her skin heated in anticipation.

“My family is scattered all over.” Slightly breathless from their talk as much as his touch, she thought a little exchange of information was only fair. “My parents divorced when my sister and I were in college. They both left town to travel and pursue their own dreams and they don't keep in touch more than once a year. My sister is a nurse in Arizona.”

He lingered at the small of her back, sketching light circles until her skin hummed with awareness.

“Maybe you could schedule a visit with her when I succeed in bringing you to San Diego for a visit.”

“You want to see me again?” she clarified, determined there would be no more misunderstandings or false pretenses between them.

“I want to spend every second of your vacation with you since you still have a few days off. Then, after we both go back to work and miss each other like crazy, I'll fly you out to Southern California and make you fall in love with warm weather and sunshine.”

Just hearing him say it made her realize he was absolutely correct. She would miss him dearly if they were separated. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she let her shawl fall to the ground while she held him close, eyes burning with unshed emotion.

“You want me to fall for the
weather?
”

He grinned, his teeth brilliantly white against his deeply tanned skin.

“Put it this way—I want to be sure you find some reason to keep coming back.” He dropped a kiss to her neck, his lips branding a hot reminder into her skin. “Maybe you'll love it so much, you won't be able to leave. They need good lawyers in San Diego, too, you know.”

He must have taken her breath away because she couldn't catch it for a long moment. Tenderness unfurled inside her along with a deep desire for that kind of life—that kind of love.

With him.

“I'd really like that.” She nodded and the motion jarred a happy tear from her eye.

He caught it with his thumb.

“Are you sure?” He kissed her ear before he whispered in it. “I warned you, I come from a pushy family. If I'm moving too fast for you, I can slow down. I just don't want to leave here without telling you what I'm hoping for.”

Stretching up on her toes, she squeezed him tight, savoring his strength and so much more.

“I'm hoping for the same things,” she whispered back, her chin brushing his shoulder. “And considering that I'm a trial attorney, I think I'm going to hold my own with you.”

This time, she would have a confidence in her personal relationships to match the self-assurance she'd always had in the courtroom. No more being drawn to guys who were bad for her.

He chuckled softly as he rained kisses down her neck.
Her skin was on fire by the time a knock vibrated the door to the hotel room.

Rick's soft oath echoed her thoughts, but he came up for air long enough to shout, “Who is it?”

“Jake.”

The sharp bark didn't sound pleased.

Lianna leaned down to retrieve her shawl so she could cover up the back of her dress while Rick moved to open the door.

The tension that had marked their early interactions had vanished, she noted. The two of them no longer glared warning signals at each other constantly and they exchanged brief nods before Jake stepped just inside the threshold so Rick could close the door.

“I'm headed back to Miami,” he said without prelude. “Just wanted to thank you and Rafe for the help.”

“I'm sure Rafe is going to want to thank you, man.” Rick clapped him on the shoulder. “He's been itching to can this guy for months.”

“Where's Marnie?” Lianna asked, wanting to say goodbye to her. After an awkward beginning, she'd come to respect the way that Marnie had no need for the games and charades that used to entertain Lianna. She seemed to know who she was and what she wanted.

“She…” Jake's jaw tensed “…left about an hour ago.”

A long, awkward paused ensued.

“Did she want to fly home?” Lianna knew it wasn't truly her business, but the gritty P.I. who'd scared her half to death when he accused her of embezzling funds now looked so brittle he was ready to break.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

“She decided to take a vacation to recover from her vacation, I guess.”

Without him. Lianna tried to put the pieces together in her head, to offer up some words of wisdom for a man who was obviously stinging from whatever had happened between them.

Rick, it seemed, didn't waste time searching for the right words. He forged directly into the breach.

“Dude, don't let her get away.” Rick shook his head in obvious disapproval, frowning the whole time. “That woman's crazy about you. And you should be smart enough to know when a good thing comes along.”

Lianna was prepared for a sharp retort, but Jake surprised her with a slow shrug of his wide shoulders.

“Seeing her in danger…” He shook his head like the memory was too real. “I couldn't handle that again. And the work—you know how it is. You don't leave it at the office. Some of those cases follow you home.”

Was that the life of a police officer? Lianna wondered.

“Hey, don't scare my girl.” Rick winked at her as if he'd read her thoughts. “So you get a place outside the city and a big freaking dog. But you can't let that rule you.”

“A big dog?” Jake turned toward the door. “That's your answer?”

“Hey.” Lianna stepped in, feeling the tension ratchet up in the room. “Jake, I think Rick means that you're a smart guy and you'll figure out how to keep her safe. Because the other alternative isn't an option. If you
push someone away because you're afraid you'll lose them, you end up losing them anyway. Even though I don't know Marnie that well, I saw how she cared about you, and I'd bet everything I have that she's hurt like hell. No woman wants a man to let her go like she's…inconsequential.”

The way Alec had treated her when it suited him. Rick, on the other hand, came after her when she was scared and alone. One of many reasons she knew this was right.
He
was right.

Jake seemed to take a moment, weighing that statement. And a twitch in his right eye told Lianna he didn't like the idea of hurting Marnie one bit.

He swore softly under his breath, cursing himself, before leaning in to give Lianna a quick thanks and a kiss on the cheek.

Rick growled possessively, pulling her closer to his side. Jake offered him a terse nod before he turned on his heel and left, slamming the door behind him.

As if he had a woman to pursue.

Lianna broke the silence in the aftermath by clearing her throat.

“You weren't kidding about the pushy thing, were you?”

“Hey, I was doing him a favor by pointing out what he can't see. With five brothers, I've learned to recognize when a guy is being pigheaded.” Rick stalked back across the room to be close to her. “You watch, he'll thank me one day for that pep talk.”