Accidental Bodyguard (20 page)

He turned his head to look at the woman sleeping beside him. He hoped nothing was seriously wrong with her. If he had to make another trip to the ER tomorrow, that would force them to relocate. Whatever happened to her sure came on fast, but she seemed okay now.

Although it was dark—no streetlights in the middle of the forest to illuminate the room—he could see the outline of her lush, perfect body, the curve of her spine, the slight bend in her knees. Her dark hair spilled across a white pillowcase. She wore a T-shirt, lacy panties and nothing else. They lay so close to each other in the small bed, he sensed her heat, the gentle movement of the mattress as she inhaled and exhaled.

Maybe she felt the weight of his attention in her sleep, because she shifted, turning on her side to face him, making a small, sweet noise. Her warm breath feathered across his arm, and he felt himself harden.

He longed to touch her. He wanted to smooth his palm down her arm and feel her flesh. He mentally urged her to wake up.

She'd be willing, but he wasn't quite so much of a jerk that he'd awaken a sick woman to satisfy his own needs. Plus, his mom was in the next room. Although thanks to a pain pill, it was not likely she'd wake up anytime soon no matter what sounds came from the bedroom.

Sounds? If only. He sighed and stared at the ceiling again. Sleeping next to Claudia without touching her was a special kind of torture. He could go sleep in the trailer, but he'd be too far away in case of trouble.

He looked at her again and found her eyes open and staring into his.

“Hey,” she whispered.

“Hey, yourself,” he whispered back. He turned on his side, careful not to touch her. Doing so would destroy any professional restraint he'd managed to cling to.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Scared.”

Stung by her tone, he couldn't stop himself from running a finger down her cheek. “What are you afraid of?”

“Myself.” She lifted a shoulder. “Carlos. You.”

“Me? I don't understand.”

“Me, either. How's your mom?”

“You're not afraid of her, are you?”

“Should I be?”

“Maybe. But she's sound asleep. The pain meds put her out.”

“Good,” Claudia said. “I'm glad you two are getting along better.”

“We'll see how long it lasts.”

“She loves you.”

He sighed. “Yeah, but she loves a lot of people.”

Claudia closed her eyes. She remained quiet for so long, he thought she'd fallen back asleep. But her eyes opened again.

“Have you ever been in love, Jack?”

He frowned. “Where did that come from?”

“I guess I'm curious about the man I've trusted my life to,” she said, her voice soft, worried.

“I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Claudia.”

She held his gaze. “Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Thanks,” she whispered, and lifted to kiss him.

He lowered his mouth to meet hers. When their lips touched, she made a desperate sexy sound, almost a whimper. A fire raced through his body, consuming any last shred of control. With a groan, he rolled on top of her. The feel of her smooth, warm skin drove him beyond any rational thought, and he pressed his erection into her soft belly as she deepened their kiss, exploring his mouth with her tongue.

He hardened until he was close to pain. A good kind of pain, the kind of pain he wanted every day. He needed to be inside her now. This was a mistake. He knew it and she knew it, but there was no way he could stop now. He wanted her too much, had wanted her for too long. He'd worry about the consequences later.

* * *

C
LAUDIA
THREADED
HER
fingers through Jack's hair, loving the feel of it, the weight of his hard body pressed against hers. This was finally going to happen. Why had they waited so long? Her gladiator was so strong, his muscled body so perfect. How could she ever be afraid with Jack protecting her?

He broke their kiss and stared into her face with troubled eyes, holding his upper body off of her with his forearms. A sensual tug low in her belly overpowered any other thoughts.

“Jack,” she whispered, wanting to tell him how she felt, that she loved him, that making love to her was okay.

“Yeah, babe?” he answered softly.

Unable to find the words, Claudia pulled her T-shirt over her head, revealing her breasts to him, wanting to reveal everything to him, to give him anything he wanted.

He smiled, and lowered his head to take her nipple into his mouth.

She closed her eyes as he suckled, holding his head in place with one hand. She slid the other into the waistband of his briefs, sliding the cotton away to get a better hold on him.

He groaned and rolled away, reaching to the floor for his wallet while she wiggled out of her panties. He ripped open a foil package with a vicious pull.

“Let me,” she said, reaching out. He placed one knee on the bed. She smoothed the condom on, and lay back, admiring Jack's body.

He paused, staring at her. “You're beautiful.”

“So are you.”

He placed his hands on either side of her and entered her with a long sensual push. Claudia closed her eyes. She'd never felt this complete. She met his slow pleasurable pumps with thrusts of her own, relishing the sweet, sweet pressure as it began to build.

Oh, Jack.
She wanted to shout that nothing had ever felt this good. She didn't care how crazy this was, how dangerous. He felt perfect inside her. She let his power and strength consume her. Her release came too soon. She arched against him and cried out his name again, triggering his own shuddering climax and a ferocious groan.

And then he went still, the room quiet but for their harsh breathing.

She found herself staring into eyes that glittered with mysterious depths. She couldn't read his expression, had no clue what he was thinking. Maybe it was better if she didn't know. She closed her eyes against a sudden rush of confused emotion, of love for this man she barely knew.

Had she just repeated the biggest mistake of her life?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

D
RYING
HER
HANDS
on a kitchen towel, Claudia stepped outside on the concrete slab and found the backyard shimmering with an eerie coral glow. The sun was setting behind the forest, painting the sky with gorgeous streaks of orange and deep red. She took a deep breath of the cool, pine-scented air, unfortunately mingled with a noxious note of Irene's cigarette smoke.

Jack stuffed wood and kindling into the chiminea, making preparations for a fire. Relaxing in one of the chairs with her foot elevated, Irene gave instructions about where to place each log as she enjoyed her after-dinner coffee and smoke.

Jack glanced up at Claudia and smiled, making her feel welcome, like she was part of his family now. Her heart squeezed as she smiled back, and he returned to building his fire.

She'd been playing house with Jack and his mom for over two weeks now. Sitting out back after dinner to talk around a fire had become their evening's entertainment. Her days had become a delightful blur of hiking into the woods either for morning target practice or just for the pleasure of getting away from Irene for a little privacy.

Her nights were all about making love with Jack.

She shivered and raised her gaze from Jack to the spectacular sunset.

She'd been taking pleasure in simple things, like cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. Not that there was much else to do. Most days she studied for an hour or two while Irene worked on her quilts and nursed a broken heart. Jack disappeared during this time, presumably scouting his property for signs of intruders. He'd strung up some kind of an early warning system that used a trip wire so he'd know about any trespassers, which was what allowed them to sit outside after dark for an hour or two.

Strangely, the last few days would have been the most pleasurable of her life if she weren't falling deeper and deeper under Jack's spell. She tried to resist his pull. She constantly reminded herself she didn't really know him, that she shouldn't trust anyone, that she couldn't be falling in love. Too bad nothing worked.

She knew better than to rely on her own instincts. She'd married a man who turned out to be a terrorist, and she'd had no clue about his true nature. How could she have fallen for a man so twisted? She didn't dare trust her own judgment.

Yet as she got closer to Jack, got to know him, she believed him to be a rare, special man. A man with honor who would never turn his back on a friend—like her, for instance, a woman he met three weeks ago. He didn't have to help her, but went all in to protect her from the Warriors because he thought it was the right thing to do. He was kind, caring, competent, gorgeous, smart. Everything Carlos had never been and never could be.

But maybe she was wrong again.

She shook her head and placed the dish towel over a chair to dry. There'd been no talk of love between her and Jack. She'd hinted around the subject once or twice, but he'd refused to bite. Jack didn't appear to even believe in love. Good for him. That way he could never be hurt.

He'd never asked anything about her marriage. Why was that? Likely because he didn't want to know. So how did he feel about her exactly? He was a fabulous lover, but maybe sex was part of the protection package and nothing more.

She didn't dare tell him how she felt. She didn't know what was real anymore, how he would react. Her life was nothing but a complicated muddle.

“Just light the damn thing already, Jack,” Irene said, bringing Claudia back to the present.

“Yes, Mother,” he said in a long-suffering tone, and struck a match. The kindling caught quickly, and soon the chimnea roared with fire, and smoke billowed out the top.

Claudia shivered in the cool night air, looking forward to sitting by the heat from the fire.

“I'm going in for a cup of tea,” she said. “Anybody need anything?”

“I'm good, honey,” Irene said. “You just come on back out here and sit yourself down. That was a delicious dinner, and you worked hard today.”

Jack looked up, and she could see the fire reflected in his eyes. “Hurry back,” he said.

Claudia nodded. She still needed to call the prosecutor and let him know she was alive. Jack's colleagues had sent an untraceable phone a few days ago, but she hadn't used it yet.

It would all be over soon. And after the trial, she'd never see Jack again.

* * *

“M
AKE
THE
CALL
, C
LAUDIA
,”
Jack said, handing her the burner phone. They'd moved into the bedroom and sat on the bed. “It's almost ten.”

“He'll still be up,” she said—a little too confidently.

“How do you know?”

“Reese is the intense type,” she said. “Always working. Never stops.”

Jack folded his arms, not appreciating her admiring tone. “Sounds boring.”

“Oh, he's far from boring,” she said.

“So you know him well?”

“Before I went into hiding, we spent a lot of time together preparing for my testimony.”

“I see.” He didn't like the thought of that at all. How much time? And why was she so hesitant to call this intensely fabulous and far from boring federal prosecutor? She claimed to trust this guy, so what exactly was she worried about? Was there something special between them?

“The trial starts Monday,” Jack said. “You need to let him know you're still willing to testify.”

She took a deep breath. “Right.”

Her eyes on a sheet of paper, Claudia punched a number into the burner phone. “Is that you, Reese? Yes...That's not important...I'm fine.”

As Jack listened to the one-way conversation, he relaxed, deducing Claudia wasn't intimate with this man. Far from it. More like she hardly knew him. Telling him she was worried about a bug, she ended the call quickly, but promised to phone the pay phone of a café on Friday, two days away.

“Will he need you Monday?” Jack asked. Was his respite with Claudia coming to an end? An unsettling hollowness bit into his gut.

“No,” she said. “Jury selection starts Monday, which Reese says should take a while. He'll put me on the stand a week from Friday at the earliest.”

“So we've got another ten days, give or take.” Jack relaxed as relief flooded through him. Ten days was a hell of a long time.

She nodded, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. “Do you have a plan on how to sneak me into the courthouse?”

“First, you should be in disguise,” he said. “My mom has got some old wigs, and we'll use one of those. Maybe trick you out in one of her more bizarre dresses.”

Claudia's mouth twitched as she fought a smile. “We're not exactly the same size.”

“She's a good seamstress and can alter something to fit you.”

“I guess that'll work.” Claudia nodded again, and looked out the window, her thoughts obviously somewhere else.

“What's wrong?” Jack placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Damn, but she was tense. He repositioned himself behind her and massaged her shoulders, using his fingers to loosen kinks. “You're tight,” he said. “Something is bothering you. I can tell.”

She shifted to face him, and his arms dropped away.

“You think you know me that well?”

He shrugged. “I can read you like a book.”

“Is that right?” she challenged.

“Yeah, that's right, and something heavy has been weighing you down lately.”

Her eyes narrowed. She started to say something, but shook her head, changing her mind, making him wish he could actually read her mind rather than just her body language and facial expressions.

“I've been thinking about how you promised to train me in self-defense.”

Jack rubbed his chin. He thought she'd forgotten about that. “The Warriors like to detonate bombs from a safe distance,” he said. “I don't think they'll get close enough for defensive training to make any difference.”

“But what if they do?” she responded. “Can't you just show me some tips?”

“Sure,” he said, flipping her onto her back, causing her to shriek in surprise. “We can begin the first lesson right now.”

He used one hand to pin both of her arms to the mattress over her head and pressed his growing erection into her pelvis. With his free hand, he traced the outline of her full lips, quite the erogenous zone for Nurse Claudia. Something he'd learned about her in the last week.

She grinned up at him. “Now I suppose you want me to try to escape?”

“If you can,” he said. He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her thoroughly, leaving them both breathless.

“I know all about a knee into the groin,” she said when he broke away.

“And you think you can manage that?” He smiled down at her.

She shook her head and provocatively thrust her hips against him.

“I have absolutely no interest in trying,” she said, holding his gaze with her clear blue eyes.

* * *

T
HE
NEXT
MORNING
, hiking their way through the forest to target practice, Jack halted suddenly in the path and held up a hand signaling for her to hold in place. He placed the opposite index finger across his lips.

Claudia froze, not daring to breathe. Had he sensed an intruder?

Stepping lightly, Jack worked his way back and stood behind her. He pointed forward to the top of the tallest tree, a mammoth pine.

“Red-shouldered hawk,” he whispered.

Claudia exhaled and quickly sucked in more air. He'd seen a bird, not a terrorist.

“A female, working on her nest, getting ready for spring. Do you see her?”

“No,” Claudia admitted, her heart still racing.

Jack stepped closer and raised his arm next to her face. “Think of the tree like a clock face, the trunk pointing to twelve and six. Now focus on the large branch jutting out at nine o'clock. Follow that out to the end and up one branch.”

Claudia followed the direction of Jack's powerful arm and spotted the bird, which was obvious once you knew where to look.

“How do you know it's a female?” she whispered.

“The females are larger. More powerful.” He lowered his arm, joined it with the other one around her waist and squeezed.

“Do tell?” Claudia relaxed into his body, enjoying his strength.

“Wow,” he said. “Your heart is galloping a hundred miles a minute. I didn't realize I had such an effect on you.”

Claudia closed her eyes. If he only knew.

“You startled me when you stopped so abruptly,” she said. “I thought we had trouble.”

Just as she said
trouble
, she felt Jack's phone vibrate, alerting him to an incoming call.

Frowning, he checked the readout. “It's Lola. I told her to call if anything changed.”

He answered the call with, “Richards,” and turned away.

Claudia recognized the name as his boss, or office manager, or supervisor, or something. Jack had never been specific about exactly who this Lola was.

She searched for the hawk again, and found her industriously poking at a large nest made of intertwined twigs and leaves with her beak.

“What?”

The vehemence of Jack's question caused Claudia to whirl. Something had definitely changed.

Jack raised his gaze to hers, and her heart began to pound again.
And whatever it is has to do with me.

“Are you sure?” he demanded, his tone harsh, unbelieving. “No mistake then,” he said, his voice now flat.

After a long pause, during which Jack stared at her the entire time, he said. “Yeah. Great. Thanks, Lola.”

“What?” Claudia asked as soon as he'd disconnected.

His face impassive, Jack looked away and glanced up to the hawk.

“Is there trouble on Collins Island?”

He held her gaze again. “Someone tried to break into Villa Alma.”

“Tried to?”

“Our security cameras caught them, and the man was arrested.”

“Is he talking?”

“No. He lawyered up fast.”

“What else?” she demanded, suspecting this security breach wasn't the only problem.

“He used Marsali Winthrop's name to get on the island.”