Predatory Game (18 page)

He caught her wrist and pulled her hand away, irritated that she could see the evidence of his fall. “It’s nothing. Let it go.”

Saber heard the bite to his voice, hesitated, and then poured herself a cup of coffee. “So what’s up, caveman?” She brushed fingertips along the corner of his mouth, sending white heat coursing through his blood. “Stop frowning at me, Jesse. Your mouth is bound to freeze that way.”

Strong white teeth snapped at and caught her index finger and drew it into the moist cavern of his mouth. His eyes burned black velvet as he used his tongue to caress her finger. She wasn’t going to embarrass him, and he felt the tension in him drain away.

Faint color tinged her cheeks, blue eyes skittered away from his. She pulled her hand back as if he had burned it. “So what’s this all about?”

He studied her small, slender form, the ribbed cotton scoop-neck T-shirt, the figure-hugging black denim. She looked ready to flee at the slightest provocation. He resisted the urge to capture her wrist. So close, yet so far away. He wanted her to make up her own mind, bind herself to him. At the same time, he wanted to just take possession finally, irrevocably, and never let her go, the hell with her choices.

“Are you going to sit down or are you going to be flittering all over the house like a little butterfly? I can just see us having a decent conversation with me following you all over.”

She perched on the countertop, regarding him warily over the rim of her coffee mug. “Conversation? Uh-oh. What have I done?”

“What makes you think you’ve done anything?”

Her bare foot tapped the cupboard. “I know you so well, dragon king, you only get that particular look on your face when you’re burning to give me one of your lectures.”

“Do I give you lectures?” He frowned.

She grinned. “Oh, I don’t mind. I think you’re kind of cute when you do, and I don’t really listen anyway.”

“That makes me feel good, baby. Honestly, I really feel so much better now that you’ve shared that with me.” The frown had vanished and there was a distinctly wicked gleam in his dark eyes. Jess eased his chair around the table until he was directly under her feet. The counter was low, built for him to use easily. “How well do you know Brian Hutton?”

It was the last thing she expected, and it wiped the sassy grin right off her face. “Brian?” she echoed. “I don’t know. As well as I know anyone at work I guess. He’s great at his job. What do you want to know?”

“What kind of relationship do you have with him?”

Saber looked completely confused. “We’re friends, I like him, why? Has he been dipping into the till or something?”

“What’s he like?”

“You know him better than I do, Jesse, he works for you.” Saber rested her bare feet on his knees. “What’s this all about?”

He shrugged. “Nothing important, I just wondered what you thought of him.”

She studied his handsome face, and then finally shook her head. “Oh, no. This is really getting to be a bad situation here. We can’t have Mr. Straight-as-an-arrow lying. You need to give yourself lecture four. The one on telling the truth.”

His fingers curled around her bare ankle. “You are in a precarious position, Saber,” he pointed out.

“Am I?” She put down her coffee cup, tilting her head to one side. “So let’s hear the truth. Why the interest in Brian?”

Jess sighed heavily. “He followed you home last night.”

“He did what?”

“Followed you home. With this weirdo calling the station asking about you, anything unusual worries me.”

“How do you know he followed me?” she demanded suspiciously. “You were in bed when I got home.”

“You thought I was.”

Saber shrugged. “He objected strenuously to certain portions of my broadcast.” Saber grinned at the memory. “He did a lot of jumping around and yelling.”

“We’ll discuss my opinion of your stupidity later,” he promised. “Maybe Brian was worried about you.”

“More likely he was worried about his job if anything happened to me. I think you intimidate him.”

“I doubt that. We lost three of our crew in that car accident. There’d been a big celebration at the station—Patsy and David had just announced their engagement. David handled the night program. He, his soundman, and the day soundman were driving down the hill when they lost control of their car and went over the cliff.”

“Where Patsy was hit? The same place?”

He nodded. “I hired both Brian and Les about three weeks before you arrived.”

Her heart jumped. A car accident? Three people from the radio station had died and that had created a job opening. She was in so much trouble. She forced a smile. “A good choice too. Brian’s brilliant at his job. I couldn’t have made it without him those first few weeks. He really taught me so much.”

She wasn’t giving her opinion of Les, the day man. She was just glad she didn’t have to work with him very often. “If Brian was worried about me to the point he had to follow me home, I’ll apologize to him.”

“You won’t say a word,” he ordered. “Until I know a little more I don’t want you letting on to Brian that you know.”

“Intrigue! How bizarre.”

“Stop being flippant. Just what did you think you were doing last night?” There was an edge of anger to his voice.

“I wanted to talk to the man. Is that such a wild idea? Honestly, Jesse, you can look so intimidating when you want to.”

“I can be intimidating when I need to be. You were asking for trouble last night and you know it. I can’t blame Brian if he was worried, you scared the hell out of me. Have you ever listened to yourself? You sound sexy, Saber. Very erotic. You can’t tease this guy.”

“I’m not teasing him. I don’t want to be afraid of him either. I figured I might as well find out what he wants. And in any case, if he ever caught up with me, he’d find out I’m not in the least bit sexy.”

His palm slid up her leg from ankle to calf and back. “No? You obviously don’t see yourself the way I do.”

His touch sent little tongues of fire licking along her spine. Muscles bunched in her stomach and along her thigh. Her womb spasmed. Wild color spread, turning her complexion rose. She ducked her head, avoiding his hungry gaze.

“You’re not to do it again, Saber. No more invitations to this man. You don’t know what he’s like. You could be feeding some sick fantasy of his. I mean it, you’re not taking any phone calls. I called Les this morning and Brian will be told this evening.”

“You can’t do that. Phone calls are a big part of my show—you know that.”

“I can do anything, baby, I own the damn station.”

“Don’t you dare pull rank on me, Jesse. If this were Brian’s show you would never have said such a stupid thing!”

“Brian isn’t you.”

“And that’s supposed to justify it? You can’t mess with my show.”

“Well I just did. No calls,” he ordered, implacable and stony-faced.

Her chin tilted at him. “And what if that makes it worse? It could, you know.”

Jess’s palm glided over her smooth skin in a mesmerizing caress. “You don’t believe that.”

Saber bit at her full lower lip. “Well, maybe not,” she admitted reluctantly. “What if I just don’t take his call? Brian can vet them all first, and if it’s him, Brian just won’t put him through.” She could barely think with Jesse’s fingers on her, brushing back and forth in that amazing way.

“I had Les send the tapes over to me. This is a nutcase, honey, and he’ll call again. And if Brian can say you can’t take calls from anyone, this nut will have no reason to think he’s being singled out.”

“That’s crazy. Wrap me in bubble wrap, why don’t you?”

“Better yet, why don’t you stay home from work for a few days? We can say you’re ill.” Jess’s hands dropped lower to take her foot into the palm of his hand, massaging it gently. “We could go on a trip together, honey.”

“What kind of trip?” In spite of herself Saber was interested. Going away with Jess would be heaven. Going anywhere with him.

“You name it. I don’t care.”

Saber sighed, reached out to brush a lock of hair from his temple with gentle fingers. “You can take me dancing and we’ll call it good.”

“You do love dancing, don’t you?” His eyes met hers, black with hunger. Saber felt as if she were dissolving, melting into him. She actually leaned toward him, her breath catching in her throat, heart thudding painfully.

The shrill ringing of the telephone had both of them jumping. Jess swore under his breath. Saber pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.

“We don’t have to answer the damn thing,” Jess groused.

“It’s the only safe thing to do,” Saber said unsteadily, lifting the receiver. “Hello.”

Jess winced at the sultry sound of her voice.

“Saber, I’m glad you’re up already.”

“Brian, what’s up?” Saber reached down to ease the grip Jess had on her calf.

“I thought maybe we could grab a bite to eat before work tonight. It’s silly for us to take two cars,” Brian said.

Jess could hear that clear, carrying baritone. He wanted to rip the phone right out of her hand and tell the stud of the radio station where he could go. People were fired over lesser infractions. Saber’s soft laughter grated on his nerves.

“Thanks for thinking of me, Brian, but I always take my own car. It’s a new rule I made after an unfortunate date. I thought your apartment was clear out in the other direction.” She glared at Jess’s frowning face, flicked his chin with her index finger.

He caught her finger, carried it to his mouth, took wicked enjoyment in her swift intake of breath, the sudden cloudiness in her blue eyes.

“I’ve moved,” Brian informed her. “So what about meeting me for dinner?”

Jess removed her finger from the warmth of his mouth. “I’m taking you dancing, remember, baby?”

Saber rolled her eyes. “Another time, Brian. Jess and I have plans tonight.”

“And every other night,” Jess said under his breath.

Saber caught it anyway, grinning at him as she nodded at whatever Brian was saying. “See you tonight, Brian, right, good-bye.” She hung up. “Jesse, you’re so outrageous. It will serve you right if I insist on you taking me out every single night. I thought you liked Brian. He’s really very nice.”

“He’s a damned playboy.”

Saber shifted sideways, jumped to the floor, dusting off her hands on the seat of her jeans. “So are you. Your own sister said so. And a cad.”

“I’m a nice cad.”

She flashed her sassy smile. “Well…” She tilted her head to one side pretending to consider. “I think you’re right.”

“I’ve got to put in a couple of more hours working,” Jess said.

Saber nodded, knowing Jess could disappear into his office with his high-tech equipment and be there for hours.

“It’s about time,” she teased. “I was afraid I’d end up supporting you.”

“It might come to that.” He glided over the smooth floor toward the hall. “What are you going to do?” If she was going out, he needed to notify Logan.

“Swim a few laps, lift weights, and eat.”

“If I work too long, come in and yell at me.”

“And risk you biting my head off?” She feigned shock. “Not even Patsy braves the dragon in his inner lair.”

He paused in the doorway. “Am I really that bad?”

She laughed. “I’d like to lie and tell you no, but when you’re in the middle of working, you definitely object to any interruptions.”

He had to follow the lead the admiral’s secretary, Louise Charter, had given him. He had a feeling time was running out on him and he needed to find the traitor in the chain of command as soon as possible, before someone else was set up to die.

“This time I’ll make an exception, I promise, honey. If I get caught up, come and get me.”

She nodded and watched him as he moved easily down the hall. There was something so fluid, so powerful in the way Jess moved, she loved to just watch him.

S
narling with rage, he slammed his fist repeatedly into the wall, tearing holes into the Sheetrock. How dare Whitney send some enhanced bastard of a soldier to reprimand him. How dare the son of a bitch order him away from Calhoun’s sister. It wasn’t his place? He’d show them his place.
And how had Whitney known?
He kicked the chair, splintering it into pieces, stomping on it for good measure.

He had managed to penetrate Calhoun’s security and make it inside the fence without being seen.
He
had done that, not one of Whitney’s finest. Screw them. He could get in and out of the house at will. He could go right now, right this moment, to Calhoun’s sister’s house and spend all night cutting her into little pieces, maybe send them one by one to the cripple—no, send the pieces to Whitney—so fuck him. How would Whitney like that?

He’d placed a listening device right outside the kitchen window. Calhoun had a jammer, but he was so much smarter at electronics than that enhanced bastard—than all of them. Had any of Whitney’s elite soldiers gotten that close to Calhoun?

And she would be gone this evening, dancing the night away with her lover. Well, he’d leave her a little surprise in her bed. In her panties. All over her entire damned room. Screw Whitney and his orders. And as for the cripple, well, tonight was going to be his last night. He was going to have him beaten to death right in front of the little whore. Whitney and his enhanced soldiers could choke on that.

C
HAPTER
8

A
ll this agonizing over Saber was inspiring. Jess was beginning to believe songwriters needed to suffer to produce good material—because this song was
good.
Every single note hauntingly beautiful, just like Saber.

He had started out working to unravel the mystery of that small digital recorder Louise Charter had brought to him. The recorder had been sealed in a plastic bag and locked in the office safe when she found it, and she hadn’t been the one to put it there. The admiral had nothing whatsoever to do with her office safe. According to Louise, he didn’t know the combination. If it was a plant to incriminate the admiral, whoever had placed the recorder there hadn’t known that only the secretary had access to the safe.