Undercover Attraction (18 page)

"I will leave you here and let Jacob give
you a shower tomorrow if you don't take them," Amy said, holding
out the pills once again.

Jenna narrowed her eyes at her sister and
reluctantly held her hand out, too tired to argue, not wanting her
sister to leave her alone with Jacob just yet.

She glared at the little pills in her hand
and tossed them in her mouth then swallowed them with a gulp of her
tea.

Jacob almost felt hurt over the fact that
she chose medication over being alone with him, but he didn't hold
it against her. Not as long as she took her meds as she was
supposed to.

Jenna pushed herself from the bar, wincing
again as the movement caused a sharp pain in her wounds. Jacob
rushed behind her, and pulled her seat out.

"Thanks," she muttered. "If you don't mind,
I'm going to bed now."

He nodded. He could see the tiredness in
her. Her gait was slow as she basically dragged her feet as she
walked out of the kitchen.

"Thanks for dinner, I will help clean up
after Jenna goes to bed," Amy threw over her shoulder as she
followed Jenna up the stairs.

He quickly threw the dishes in the
dishwasher, and tidied up the kitchen. No sense in making Amy help
him, after all, they were guests. After turning the lights down, he
headed upstairs to his room.

Jenna was occupying his every thought. She
was headstrong and had a stubborn streak a mile long. But he liked
her. No. It went beyond like… he was deeply infatuated with
her.

He had never had this kind of lust for a
woman before. His previous relationships had been mature, rational
companionships, which never progressed further than
like
.
This was different. He wanted her. All of her. He wanted to know
everything about her. Likes. Dislikes. Favorite restaurant.
Favorite color. What kind of toothpaste she used. What kind of
music she preferred. Which movies made her cry.
Everything
.
And it frustrated him that she seemed so indifferent to him.

It was a front, he knew. She was trying to
keep him at a distance by pushing him away and building a wall
around herself. Jenna acted as if she wasn't interested in the
least, however, he knew differently. Earlier, she wouldn't have
kissed him back so passionately or responded with such a lack of
control had she not desired him on some level.

He refused to give up on her. Jacob wanted
to see where this relationship was going because he had never had a
lack of restraint when it came to women. But this time was
different. He wanted to wrap himself around her, hold her, and
protect her from the cruelty of the world.

Time to step up the game
, he
thought.

Flipping on his desktop, he pulled up his
chair and slid in the disc that he had copied from the station.
Some of their best encryptions specialists had tried to break the
code which was used for all the data on the disc. Unfortunately,
none of them had made any headway yet.

He stared at the code, trying to make sense
of the gibberish, but couldn't. After a few minutes of fruitless
staring, he decided to check on Jenna and Amy.

The security cameras he put in each room
recorded every second from the first sense of movement, and sent
the feed to his personal computer, saving the video feed until he
manually deleted it. He simply opened the live video feed from
Amy's room, but all was silent.

He switched the feed to Jenna's room, just
to check on them, and instantly their voices came through his
speakers.

"-about it? He's hot, and you obviously have
something for him." Amy's voice stopped him from turning off the
feed.

They were talking about him. So technically
he wasn't spying.
Right
?

Jenna sighed. She was tucked into bed, with
Amy propped up on the pillows next to her. "Yeah. I like him,
alright? Maybe too much."

"Okay. So what's your problem?"

Another sigh from Jenna. "He was just very
intense sexually, and I'm not ready for that. I'm not sure I have
it in me to trust another man yet."

Amy sat up and faced her. "Intensity is a
good thing. And those guys you were with before were not men. They
were psychotic boys with domination complexes. I think Jacob is
very different from them, and I don't see him hurting you like they
did. You promised me that you would give this a shot. Besides, you
liked the sex before you knew he was a cop."

"I know. And I want to. But he is just so
intense."

Jacob knew he should turn it off, but he
couldn't help himself. He watched as Amy stood up, both hands on
her hips.

"I think you are worried that once he sees
the real person on the inside, he won't like you anymore. Did you
pull out your box while he was with you?"

What box?

"Uh, no! He might not be into that kind of
thing. And I'm not scared of showing him the real me because this
is the real me." Jenna let out a huge yawn, her voice dropping off
at the last words.

Amy shook her head. "No, it's not. You are
putting on a strong front. You're really terrified and needy. You
need reassurance all the time, and hate change. You are scared of
the world, of letting anyone in because you have been your own
person for so long, you don't know how to cope with anyone you feel
pushes your boundaries." She raised an eyebrow at Jenna. "And have
you thought that maybe he's as kinky as you are?"

Ooh. That sounded very intriguing to him.
She had a secret fetish?
Nice
. He could be a kinky man. A
very
kinky man.

"I guess you're right. I'll give it a shot,
but this is going to have to go slow. I can't risk being broken
again, because I might not recover next time."

Poor Jenna. He wanted to kill her
ex-boyfriend. Repeatedly. That asshole had ruined her spirit, but
she was stronger than many of the abused women he had met before.
And he could be gentle and easy with her.

"Are you going to ask to get some of your
things from your house tomorrow? Like specifically, your toy box?
It can't hurt to have it here. You know, for when you are
frustrated and holding him at bay."

Jenna's lips quirked. "I might."

Jacob exited the connection and felt heat
shoot to his loins at the thought of Jenna using her toys while
thinking of him. Oh, yeah. It was time to step up his game.

C
hapter 11.

Jenna awoke feeling refreshed and energetic, despite the burning
ache in her arm and neck. Jacob and Amy were already downstairs
laughing over some joke in the kitchen when she finally descended
the stairs.

She walked in slowly, trying not to draw
attention to herself, but to no avail. They both looked up at her
over matching coffee cups.

Amy smiled brightly. "Hey, honey. How are
you feeling this morning?"

Jenna smiled back. "I'm okay. Kinda sore,
but no biggie." She took the seat next to Amy, and almost sighed in
bliss when Jacob sat a cup of steaming coffee in front of her.

"Good morning. Cream? Sugar?" he asked in
that deep timbre.

He looked good. His hair was still tussled
from sleep, and his features softened as if he'd had a good night's
sleep.

"Um. Thanks. A splash of cream and two
sugar." She watched as he stirred the sugar into her coffee,
mesmerized by the movements of his hand, not realizing she was
imagining that hand stirring something else. On her body…

"Jenna?" Amy's voice snapped at her.

She looked up, "What?"

Amy looked at her funny. "Jacob asked you if
you slept well. Where were you?"

"Oh, sorry. I was daydreaming, but yes, I
slept very well, all things considered."

He raised an eyebrow at her, one side of his
mouth tipping up in that charming grin. "Good. I'm glad. Let's
negotiate medication."

Her brain was still slightly foggy from not
having her first two cups of coffee yet. "What do you mean?"

He chuckled and crossed his arms over his
chest. "I noticed how much you hated taking your pills last night
so I am willing to compromise. You can ask for something in return
if you take them."

Oh, she liked that idea. "Can I go
home?"

"There
are
terms to this. You can't
ask me that. I can't place you in a position which is a danger to
you safety. You do at least have to be reasonable in this
negotiation. I mean, I could just force you to take the pills, but
that won't be pleasant for either of us."

Well, there went her hope flying out the
window. "Fine. How about some things from my house?"

He stuck his hand out. "Deal." She took his
hand with her good arm, and they shook. She took her pills without
complaining, even though she didn't want to, looking forward to
being able to go home, even if it was for a few minutes.

Amy stood up and fixed herself another cup
of coffee. "I have to go back to school tomorrow, so I'm leaving
this evening. I can't afford to miss any days. We are in the middle
of restoring a fourteenth century piece that seems to be encased
within a solid gold frame, but with no artist name."

Amy was pretty good at identifying
historical artifacts based on the materials used and could even
identify the more popular artist's works based on the brushstrokes.
She was interning as well as taking classes, and in the middle of
an ancient find as this one, she couldn't miss out on the
restoration. Identifying it could make her career take off before
even graduating.

For all the trouble she caused and havoc she
wreaked, she was very good at her profession. Jenna knew she
couldn't ask Amy to stay, as important as the artifact was to her
and her career. She just nodded at Amy, somewhat apprehensive about
being left alone with Jacob, but unwilling to ruin her sister's
chances at restoring an important piece of history.

"Alex is going to come sit with you ladies
while I run to the station. Jenna, you can make a list of things
you want from your house and I will stop by there and get them,"
Jacob said around his cup of coffee.

Her eyes shot up to Jacob, who was leaning
one hip against the bar.

"I thought I would get to go. You didn't say
anything about making a list," she said accusingly, knowing he had
tricked her.

"I told you that you couldn't ask anything
that would put you in danger, and I consider you going to your
house dangerous right now." He sat his cup down and crossed his
arms.

"That's not dangerous. I need to go home.
Chuckles needs to be fed, I have clothes in the dryer I should
fold, and a few other things I need that are personal and I don't
want to write down." She faced him, her good hand on her hip.

Jacob felt desire stirring at the mention of
her personal items. He had a fairly good idea what she was talking
about-
ahem, toy box under the bed
- and the thought of her
actually bringing her sex toys here turned him on enormously.

"I'm sorry, Jenna. I am. But after what
happened yesterday, I can't let you anywhere near where they might
be looking for you. That man was a sniper, and his intent went far
beyond just trying to hurt you."

Jenna flinched. Of course he was right. She
would be safer here, however, it wasn't in her nature to hide like
a scared little girl. She was a fighter. "Okay, I will make a list,
but if you dare to look in any of my private things, I will be
extremely pissed." Besides, while Jacob was away, she could peek at
the code on the disc.

Jacob sent her that crooked smile, surprised
that she didn't argue further with him. He opened a drawer and
pulled out a notebook and a pen for her, then left to go get
dressed.

She quickly wrote a list of things she
needed,- excluding her stash of love toys- made a few notes at the
bottom about feeding Chuckles, changing his litter box, and to make
sure he had plenty of water, then folded the paper up and left the
bar to search out Amy who had wandered into the living room.

Amy sat with her feet propped up on the
coffee table, flipping through channels on the large TV.

The doorbell rang, and the computerized
alarm system piped up. "Alex Nichols is at the door. Weapons
evident on his person in four various areas. Permission to allow
entrance requested."

Amy looked at Jenna. "That thing is just
creepy to me. Hasn't Jacob seen the crazy sci-fi movies where
computers take over the world?"

Jenna agreed, but just shrugged her
shoulders. Jacob must have talked to the system from somewhere
else, allowing Alex entry. The front door opened and closed,
followed by footsteps to where they sat.

"Well, hello, Gorgeous," Amy said as she
watched Alex enter the room.

Alex's face instantly lit with a charming
smile. "This is my lucky day. I not only get to hang out with one
beautiful lady, but two." He walked over to Amy and introduced
himself.