His Obsession Next Door (In the Line of Duty) (2 page)

The second Gemma had touched his arm she lit a dangerous fuse inside him. Cole had immediately disengaged, knowing it could only end up backfiring and blowing up in his face. He hated the familiar hurt in her eyes when he recoiled, hated that he’d put it there—again—but he knew nothing good could come from the firestorm inside him, one that had been brewing since their youth. Gemma had tried to hide the pain, the hurt on her face, and she might have succeeded with someone who didn’t know her the way he did.

“Gems,” he whispered. He clenched his fingers and fought the natural inclination to pull her to him and comfort her like he did when they were younger. But if her body collided with his—one part in particular—she’d know how she affected him. And he couldn’t let that happen. He had to stay strong.

Instead of acting on his needs, he took that moment to pan her pretty features, noting the way she’d tied her long, chestnut hair back into a ponytail. His gaze left her face to trail over the supple swell of her breasts as they pressed against her V-neck top. He shifted, uncomfortable as he perused her slim waist and the way her sensuous curves turned a pair of green surgery scrubs into a Victoria’s Secret spread. Christ, she was even more beautiful now than she was when they were kids. But no matter what, and no matter how he felt about her, when it came to Gemma, there was a line he wasn’t going to cross.

Her assistant came out from the back room. “He’s stable and ready to go to ICU.” When her words met with silence, her gaze tennis balled between the two, a sure sign that she felt the tension in the room every bit as much as Cole did. “Ah…Danielle will be here shortly. If you guys want to go, we can finish up.”

Gemma exhaled slowly and pushed off the counter. “Thanks, Victoria. I’ll come in early to check on him.”

Cole stiffened. “He has to stay the night?”

“He needs to be monitored for at least twenty-four hours.”

“Then I’m staying.”

“It’s not necessary. My night assistant will be here shortly, and I’m on call twenty-four seven. He’s resting soundly and by the looks of you, you should be doing the same.”

After a long moment, he gave a nod of agreement and Victoria slipped into the back, leaving them alone once again. Cole turned his full attention to Gemma and stretched his neck, working the night’s tension from his shoulders.

Moving with an innocent sensuality, she walked around the counter to grab her purse from the drawer. Cole became fully aware of the woman standing before him and exactly what she meant to him. He shifted on his feet and tore his gaze away, looking for a distraction before his mind took him back to that hot summer night when she’d lured him into the barn nestled at the back of her old homestead. Christ, it had taken all his effort not to lay her onto the soft bed of hay and take what he wanted.

But at seventeen she was a kid, as well as the younger sister of his closest friend. Of course, those weren’t the only things stopping him from acting on his urges. No, when his own parents had been emotionally absent—too busy looking for happiness in the bottom of a bottle—her folks had practically taken him in. Cole would never be disloyal to the family who’d treated him like a son by sleeping with their only daughter.

“It’s late and it’s dark. Why don’t you let me walk you home,” Cole said, breaking the uncomfortable silence hovering like the sharp blade of a guillotine.

In typical Gemma fashion, she straightened her shoulders in that old, familiar way that let him know he’d hit a soft spot. “I’m capable of walking home by myself.” She lifted her head a little higher. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m all grown up.”

Oh, he’d noticed all right.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but he countered with, “It’s on my way, Gems.”

That gave her pause. Her head jerked back with a start and he didn’t miss the accusation in her tone when she said, “Let me get this straight, you know where I work
and
where I live?”

“Yeah,” he said, for lack of anything else.

Her big blue eyes narrowed. “Why is it you know so much about me yet I know nothing about you?”

“What do you want to know?”

Without hesitating she asked, “If walking me home is on your way, where do you live?”

He gestured to the motorcycle parked at the curb outside. “For now I’ve got a cot in the back of Freedom Cycle.”

Perfectly manicured brows knit together as she angled her head curiously. “You’re staying with Jack?”

“You remember Jack?”

She nodded. “Ex-sniper. Brandon always liked him.” At the mention of her brother she rubbed the back of her neck and a contemplative look came over her face before she began again. “When I moved into one of my parents’ downtown apartments during college Brandon told me—” she paused to do air quotes before saying, “—
Jack of all trades
was my go-to guy if I ever needed anything. I’ve run into him a couple of times since the funeral.”

Cole paused for a moment before saying, “He takes in ex-soldiers and gives them work until they get back on their feet again.”

“What I heard…” Her voice fell off and her eyes widened. “Wait… Are you saying…?”

“Yeah. I’m getting out, Gems. My days serving overseas will soon be behind me.”

“Oh,” she said, a mixture of surprise and relief swimming in her big blue eyes. Then she frowned. “So you’re sleeping in the back of his shop?”

“Just until my new place is ready.”

“And when will that be?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Where will you be moving?”

Gemma stifled a yawn, and Cole could see exhaustion pulling at her. Instead of answering, he said, “Come on, I’m taking you home.” He tossed her a lopsided grin, one that always pulled a smile from her when they were younger. “You know, for old time’s sake.”

Their eyes met and everything in his gut told him her thoughts were traveling down the same path as his. She too was remembering her youth and all the times he’d taken her home and snuck her to her room so she wouldn’t get busted by her older brother or her folks. Sure, he’d lectured her on the dangers of her rebellious nature, but he’d always had an inherent need to protect her, from everyone and everything. He couldn’t bring himself to let her get caught, even though it might have been for her own good. Then again, as long as he was around and watching over her, no harm would ever come to her.

“Cole—” she began, but he cut her off.

“I know, I know. You’re quite capable of taking care of yourself,” he said to appease her protest. He still wasn’t taking a chance with her safety now that she was living on her own in the downtown core and he was back from overseas. Besides, when Brandon was dying in his arms and there wasn’t a thing Cole could do to save him, he’d asked only one thing of Cole. And no matter what, Cole planned to follow through with the vow he’d made to Gemma’s brother on that dark night, because he never, ever wanted to fail Brandon again.

Chapter Two

A breeze came out of nowhere and washed over Gemma as she followed Cole outside. Too bad it did little to cool the heat that had taken up permanent residency inside her since setting eyes on the boy—no, the
man
—from her past. As they walked down the quiet sidewalk, Cole’s boots echoed in the unnatural silence. He stepped closer, moving into her personal space. That’s when she caught his familiar fragrance, the warm spice of sandalwood combined with Cole’s unique scent. Working to ignore the way it engulfed her and reminded her she was a woman who hadn’t been with a man in far too long, she turned to Cole and tipped her chin to make eye contact.

“What about your bike?” she asked, gesturing with a nod to the motorcycle parked on the street. She glanced at his mode of transportation, wondering how he’d managed to ride it to Sherwood Park with a dog in tow. When she noticed the sidecar, an invisible band squeezed her heart. Honestly, if she didn’t already know that Cole was one of the good guys, seeing that side cart would have cinched the deal for her. If there was one thing she knew, it was that you could tell a guy’s character by the way he treated his pet. But to a soldier, a dog wasn’t just a pet. It was a best friend. An important member of the family, and there was no one in need of a family more than Cole.

He twisted his shoulders to glance at his bike. “I’ll come back for it later.”

His arm casually brushed against hers when he turned back around. Raw need shimmered inside her as the air around them crackled with volatile energy. Her skin flushed hotly, making it difficult to keep her voice casual when she said, “You don’t have to walk me home.”

He pinned her with a glare. “Did you ever think maybe I wanted to?”

She averted her gaze and stared straight ahead, not wanting to dwell on the things he
didn’t
want to do with her.

After a long moment she shot Cole a sidelong glance. She gave him a thorough inspection, taking extra pleasure in his rugged sexiness and long, confident strides. The man was all strength and power, and she didn’t miss the authority in the way he moved or the way he talked.

A fine shiver moved through her and she drew a fueling breath to marshal her libido before it got the better of her. “What do you plan to do now that you’re getting out of the military?”

“Contract work.”

“Like what? Join a renegade operation to fight organized crime?”

“No, Gems.” He laughed, and the rich sound elicited a shudder from deep within and had heat flooding her nether regions. Damn. So much for pulling herself together. “That only happens in those romance novels you love so much.”

“You remember my novels?”

“How could I forget? You had them scattered all over the place. Brandon and I were always tripping over them.” Cole stepped over a crack in the cement and his knuckles accidently brushed hers in an intimate manner. Her mind once again careened in an erotic direction.

She sucked in a quick breath as naked desire moved into her stomach. Cole’s nostrils flared as his glance darted to hers. Their eyes met and locked and his backbone grew rigid. She could tell he was uncomfortable but trying to hide it as he inched away, jamming his hands into his pockets to avoid further contact.

As he widened the distance between them, she tried not to think about the slow burn working its way through her bloodstream, or how everything inside her beckoned his touch, even after all this time. Looking for a distraction, she toyed with the hem of her shirt and focused her thoughts. “If you’re not fighting organized crime, what exactly will you be doing?”

“When I’m not helping out at the bike shop I’m going to do contract bomb hunting.”

She nodded. “I should have guessed.”

His eyes turned very serious. “You wouldn’t believe how many unexploded bombs there are across the country, left over from former training camps during the wars. I’ll be joining a convoy next month.” When she arched a knowing brow, he shrugged and added, “What can I say, I love blowing things up.”

They shared a laugh, but it did nothing to ease the tension inside her or push back the heat threatening to burn her from the inside out.

After a moment Cole asked in a quiet voice, “How are your folks, Gemma? I haven’t talked to them since…”

His voice fell off, like he couldn’t bring himself to say the word funeral. “They’re well,” she assured him. “Dad is close to retirement.” She paused and rolled her eyes before adding, “And when Mom isn’t at one of her charity events, she’s trying to marry me off because she thinks I need a man to protect me.” When he didn’t say anything, Gemma went on to say, “I’m sure they’d be happy to see you. There’s a banquet Saturday night to raise funds for my shelter. Mother will be there. You should come.”

He tugged on the collar of his jacket. “I don’t know, Gems.”

She didn’t need to probe to understand Cole had never felt like he belonged in her world, a world filled with glitz and glamour. Cole had grown up poor, having to fend for himself, while her folks had apartments in the city, a summer home in the Mediterranean and a beautiful sprawling ranch on the outskirts of town. That’s where Gemma and Brandon had spent their childhood and went to school, despite their mother wanting them to attend a private boarding school in the city. But Gemma wanted to be near her horses and dogs, and her quiet brother had found an unlikely best friend in the rough and rugged boy who lived on the other side of the tracks.

They reached the front steps of her place, and she turned to Cole. “This is it. Home sweet home. But I guess you already know that.”

He scrubbed his chin, and she caught the way his gaze kept straying to the vacant condo across the street, and to the bright red SOLD banner splashed across the sign.

Gemma’s eyes widened. “Oh, I didn’t realize the Thompsons had sold their condo.” Cole opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but instead turned his attention to the loud barking sound coming from inside her condo.

“That sounds like some watchdog you have there.”

“Would you like to meet him?”

The corner of his mouth turned up in that boyish way that had her insides trembling with want, and her body urging her to do something about the heat careening through her.

“Uh, he actually doesn’t sound too friendly, Gems.”

She gave a casual shrug. “He can be very protective of me. But he’s a good judge of character.”