A_Little_Harmless_Fascination (7 page)

“How is he supposed to live?”

“Live?”

“He isn’t like you.”

She sat on her bed as her head started to throb. If Hindus
were right about reincarnation, she must have been a total bitch in her last
lifetime.

“Really?”

Jillian knew what was coming next. Most of the family could
care less that she was half black, but with Blanche, it was very important.

“You come from the working class. You know how to work.”

“Newsflash, Blanche, so did Mom. In fact, isn’t that how she
met my father?”

There were a few moments of silence on the phone. Jillian
didn’t normally let them know they got to her. But she was so damned tired of
them putting her down because her father made a better life for himself. Most
people thought her father was a great man.

“How is he going to survive?”

Blanche was so dramatic. The whole family was. It was like
living with the fucking Barrymores.

“Maybe sell one of those motorcycles of his? That should be
able to get him a few bucks. I have something to do tonight. I have to go.”

Without waiting for an answer, she hung up and threw the
phone on her bed. Dammit, Blanche had ruined the good vibe she’d had from her time
with Conner. A little shopping, and a little flirting with a very gorgeous man.
Dammit, she hated her family. She wanted to just walk away. Not for the first
time, she damned her grandmother. Legally, she could do it. It would be messy,
but it would make her life easier.

She fell back on her mattress. She wouldn’t, though, and
that bitch of a grandmother knew it. There was one thing her parents had
instilled in her and that was duty. Shit.

Jillian sat up and shook off the irritation. She left her
family cell sitting on the bed as she went to get ready. She wasn’t going to
let them ruin her good day.

Conner looked around the club. Even for a Tuesday night, it
was buzzing. Lots of customers, and with a special “bring your cake and eat it,
too” party going on, lots of cake. In fact, he could smell the sugar standing
fifty feet away.

“Whatcha think?”

He looked at Dee Ross and tried to see her as the woman she
had become. Their association had been brief when he had been ordered to
protect her all those years ago. It was hard to believe she was grown-up and
married. A lot like his sister.

“Do you think it’s healthy for you to be doing this?”

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "Yes. And lord, don't
let Micah hear you say that. He's already being a bear, and I’m barely four
months along."

Conner still couldn't believe she was pregnant. It was
another sign that life moved on. It wasn’t until today that he’d realized how
much everyone in his life had continued on while he had stayed perfectly still.

"So, what are your plans while you're here?" she
asked.

He shrugged. "Not sure. Jillian took me to the swap
meet a couple of days ago, and I’ve been to the beach."

"Jillian?"

"My landlady and an old friend of my sister's. She owns
a house on the other side of the island and rents out the top floor of
it."

"Ah. That’s good. A lot of people don’t take the time
to get out of Honolulu except for part of a day. Where is the house located?”

“Near Kaneohe.”

“Oh, we’ll have to have you over for a meal. We live over
there. You can bring your lady friend.”

“She’s not my lady friend.”

Her eyebrow went up at his tone. “Okay. Micah will be down
in a sec. He's talking to someone who's going to do research here."

"Does he do that often?” he asked.

Dee shook her head. "He told me this was a favor for a
friend." Something caught her eye over his shoulder on the monitors, and
her gaze softened. He turned and looked at the screens. Micah was walking with
Jillian.

"What's she doing here?"

Dee stepped up beside him. "Her?"

"Jillian, why is she here?"

He felt Dee's study as he stared at the screen, but for a
moment, he ignored it. He watched as Micah guided Jillian through the club, introducing
her to people, some of them damned near half naked.

"Conner?"

"What?"

The silence that followed told him that Dee had not been
happy with his tone. He glanced at her, and she was studying him as if there
was something wrong with him.

"Jillian, she’s your landlady?"

He nodded.

"So she's a writer?"

He nodded again as he looked back at the screen. He was fine
until some jean-clad man with light hair and a cocky grin ran his finger down
her arm.

"I think that's enough of that."

"Conner."

But he ignored Dee. He walked down the stairs to the floor
and didn't slow until he got to their table.

Micah smiled at him, but Conner was ready to punch him.

"Conner, it's great to see you here."

Jillian spun around. "Conner? I thought you were going
to see some old friends."

"I am. Dee, and to a point, Micah."

"Gee, thanks, Dillon," Micah said, but there was a
thick thread of humor in his voice.

"What the holy hell are you doing here?"

She blinked at him, and he didn't blame her. His tone was
proprietary, as if she had to answer to him.

"I'm researching."

"Is that what they call it now?"

She frowned at him and her eyes narrowed, but before she
could say anything, the man who had touched her opened his big damned mouth.

"I've never known a man who’s won a fight with a woman,
mate. You might want to step back."

He glanced around Jillian and gave the man a nasty look, but
his smile just widened.

"Elias St John, meet an old friend of the family, on
Dee's side of course, former-agent Conner Dillon."

His eyes widened. "Dillon Securities?"

He nodded.

"Great operation you have there. I might want to talk
to you about some security over at my ranch."

"I'm not licensed to work in Australia."

He laughed. "No, I own a ranch on the Big Island."

He dismissed the cocky bastard and studied Jillian. She had
put on some makeup, and she had some kind of sparkly earrings dangling from her
ears. Dammit. Noticing them made him think of just where else she might be
pierced. It had been driving him crazy for days.

"What I would like to know is what you are doing
here?"

She looked ready to hit him. "I don't think I have to
answer any questions."

He knew he was acting out of character, and he didn't have a
right to do what he was doing.

"No, you don't. You just didn't tell me you were coming
here."

He heard a snort, and he was sure it was Micah.

"First, you didn't ask. Second, I don't think I have to
clear my schedule with you."

He frowned at her, but she ignored him. Dee stepped up
beside him. He glanced at her, but Dee wasn’t paying attention to him. She was
smiling at Jillian.

“Hi,” Dee said, throwing him an amused look.

"I take it that you're Dee?" Jillian asked.

She had dismissed him. Something close to irritation, with a
dose of possessiveness, moved through him. Conner didn’t like it one bit. He
knew he was attracted to her, even entertained the idea of an affair, but he
rarely got jealous over lovers. Not since he was a teenager had he felt the
need to gain a woman’s attention. He didn’t like it one bit.

Apparently, Dee picked up on his feelings because she gave
him a smile before turning to face Jillian.

"Yes, I am. I take it you're the writer?" Dee
asked. There was more than a little humor in her voice.

Jillian nodded, but before she could say anything else, St
John muscled his way into the conversation.

"A writer?" St John asked. "What kind of
writer?"

The suspicion in his tone caught Conner's attention. He
studied the alertness in the man, the way St John now looked to be accessing
Jillian in a way that had nothing to do with sex.

It was so subtle that most people wouldn’t pick up on it,
but Conner’s years of training taught him to pay attention to the small cues.

"Romance, mainly erotic romance."

"Ah," was all the Aussie said for a moment and
seemed to relax. "Romance, you say?"

Conner had heard the tone before from people. He hadn't
spent much time until recently with Jillian, but he knew the way her back
straightened that St John was in trouble. Maura had said that Jillian hated to
be hit on because she was a romance author. Men seemed to think she was easy
because of her genre.

"Do you ever do any hands-on research?"

She turned to say something horrible, which would probably
leave the man in a fetal position on the floor, but someone called Conner’s
name. Loudly.

"Conner Dillon?"

He turned and found one of his old FBI friends, Maria
Callahan, rushing toward him. She practically jumped into his arms.

A serious-looking man dressed in a suit came walking up
behind her.

"I think you’ve stunned the man, Maria," the man
said, but she paid him no heed. Instead she gave Conner a sisterly kiss on the
cheek.

She stepped back with a laugh. "Oh, Rome, get over
yourself. This is Conner Dillon."

"Yeah, I heard you scream his name like a little school
girl and run over to jump him."

She rolled her eyes and smiled at Conner. "How are you
doing?"

"I think you need to introduce me to the man who's
planning on ripping my arms out of the sockets and beating me with them."

She laughed. "This is my fiancé, Rome Carino. Rome,
this is Conner. My dad trained him, then he trained me. Dad sort of saw him as
an honorary Callahan."

He offered a hand, and Carino took it.

"Wait, you said fiancé?" he asked, his brain still
not functioning fully.

"Yes, it’s a bit disgusting. Marriages popping out all
over this club," St John said. "I'm going to escape before I get some
of the ‘get married’ stench on me."

Maria smiled at him. "Eli, one of these days some woman
is going to wrap you around her finger."

"What a pleasant idea," he said sarcastically. He
gave Maria a kiss on the cheek that earned a growl from Rome, but the cowboy
ignored it and walked away.

"I don't trust him," Rome said.

"You don't trust any man around me," Maria said.

"I have to agree with him," Conner said.

She gave Conner a look that told him that he would be better
off staying out of the argument. “What are you doing here? I had no idea you
were a member.”

“Neither did I,” Jillian said.

Maria peeked over his shoulder and smiled.

“Hi,” Maria said and slipped past him before he could stop
her. “I’m Maria Callahan. I knew Conner at the FBI.”

Jillian smiled. “Nice to meet you. You know Eli?”

Maria chuckled. “At one time I thought he might be a serial
killer.”

Jillian glanced at the cowboy. “I’m assuming he was
cleared?”

Maria nodded. “I have a feeling he might be guilty of
something, but it wasn’t of being a serial killer.”

And knowing Maria, there was more to it than she was saying.
Conner filed that information away to ask her about later.

“You say you worked with Conner? You look really young to be
a contemporary of his.”

Micah snorted, and Conner shot him a look.

“Her father trained me, and I helped train Maria.”

Jillian’s eyes were twinkling, her dimples starting to
appear. His heart raced, and he had the sudden urge to kiss that smirk off her
face.

“Oh, that explains it, because you are a bit older,” she
said.

“Hey.”

She smiled at him and turned back to Maria. “Are you here
with the FBI?”

Maria shook her head. “No. I left the FBI a few months back.
I’m trying my hand at writing. I’m working on my first book.”

Without missing a beat, Jillian slipped her hand into the
back pocket of her jeans and pulled out a business card, handing it over to
Maria. “Give me a call.”

Maria’s eyes widened when she saw the name. “Oh, thank you.”

“So, what are your plans while you’re here, Con?” Dee asked.

Everyone turned to him as if waiting to hear exactly what he
said. He had never been under this much scrutiny in his life, and it was weird.
“Just to relax.”

There was a moment of silence then everyone who knew him
started laughing.

“What are you laughing at?” Rome asked.

Maria shook her head. “You have to understand. Conner
doesn’t know how to relax. My father used to call him the Energizer Bunny.”

“Well, thanks for that. What I want to hear is that my
mentor compared me to a fluffy bunny,” Conner said, only half joking.

“She’s right, you know. There was some speculation in the
dorm about that stamina,” Jillian said.

He could feel heat singe his cheeks. “What the hell is that
supposed to mean?”

She shrugged and blinked a few times in mock innocence. She
opened her mouth to respond, but instead of keeping the conversation going, he
grabbed her hand and tugged her to the dance floor.

She was laughing when he pulled her into his arms.

“Why, Agent Dillon, you’re so forceful,” she said, injecting
more of her southern accent.

“You better behave yourself or you’ll find out just how
forceful I can get.”

“I haven’t said I have a problem with that.”

Just hearing her say that had his body reacting. From the
moment he had seen her in the club, he had wanted to touch her. Now he was
getting to, but they were wearing too many clothes. And there were in public.
She shifted against him, and he groaned.

She looked up at him with wide eyes. “What?”

“I’m riding a very fine line of control, Jillian.” He bit
out every word, trying to keep his irritation under control. He wasn’t used to
this problem. There had been women he had wanted before, but not with this force.
That alone was unsettling and irritating. But the feelings of jealousy that had
him melting down earlier were not common or welcomed.