Read Stealing His Heart Online
Authors: Diane Alberts
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #General, #Stealing His Heart, #Brazen, #Jennifer McLaughlin, #Shilling Agency, #Entangled, #Diane Alberts, #contemporary romance
Stealing His Heart (15 page)
“Forever and—” Her stomach growled, and he raised a brow. “But apparently you need dinner.”
She flushed. “Apparently.”
He laughed and lifted her off of him, slowly withdrawing from her body. “What are you in the mood for?”
“I don’t care,” she said. “As long as I’m with you.”
“Back atcha, sweetheart.” He tucked himself away, then pulled his zipper up. Bending over, he tossed her dress at her. “Remember how happy I made you when I piss you off next time. It’s gonna be soon.”
Tara pulled the dress over her head. “Why? What are you planning on doing now?”
“I have a proposition for you.” He hesitated. “And I’d like you to consider it before you reject me.”
“What?” she asked after a moment, her heart picking up speed.
“I want you to work for Cooper.” He held his hand out when she opened her mouth. “You could have a position where you do background checks on all of our employees, making sure there are no more Solteses in the company.”
“Jake—”
“Or you could be a recovery specialist, with us instead of on your own. You would help clients find lost objects, but not
steal
them back. When we find them, we would tell the police, and they would take it from there.” He sat down next to her on the bed. “Think about it. It’s the same job, but more Sherlock, and less Robin Hood.”
Her lips twitched, and she laughed. “Did you call me Sherlock?”
“Yeah, maybe,” he admitted, scratching the back of his head.
“Does that make you my Watson?”
He leaned in and kissed her. “You can call me anything you want.”
“I want to call you
mine
.”
“Sounds perfect.” He grabbed hold of her ankles and yanked across the couch until she was flat on her back. “Make sure at the end of the day, you call out my name as I make you come.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I promise. And Jake?”
He nuzzled her neck. “Yeah?”
“I’ll think about the job. I knew if I let you in, that I’d have to make changes.” She glanced at him. “It’s why I was so scared to do it. I didn’t know if I was ready for those changes. This has been my life. It’s all I had.”
He kissed her nose. “You have me now.”
“I know.”
“You’ll love it there, by the way.” He smiled, big and bright. “Cooper’s a great boss. He took over the company earlier this year. His father started it.”
“I said I’d
think
about it, not take it.”
“I know. And you’ll love it.”
She rolled her eyes, not bothering to fight him on this. The cat jumped on the couch and meowed before inserting his face between them. Tara smiled at the small animal. “What should we call him?”
He reached out to pet the cat, but he hissed at him. Jake glowered at him. “What would you have called that little cat all those years ago, if you’d gotten him?”
She snorted. “Probably Fluffy.”
“Well, then.” Jake scooped the tiny kitten under the belly and held him in the air with one hand. The kitten batted at him with a small paw. Jake rotated him, glaring the whole time. “Fluffy it is—even if he’s more of a killer than a fluff ball.”
She laughed and took him. He cuddled close to her chest and gave a tiny meow. “Looks pretty harmless to me.”
“Yeah. Sure,” he said, watching him warily. Fluffy stared right back at him without blinking. “I’ll grab the supplies out of my car, then we’ll do dinner.”
As he headed for the door, Tara sat and wrapped her arms around her knees. The kitten jumped off the couch, the bell on his collar jingling with each step, and followed Jake. It was funny that he remembered that night in the pet shop so well, because she did, too.
That was the night she realized she loved him, and that’s why she’d given herself to him. When she had walked away from that cat, part of her had felt like it was Jake she left behind. It might have taken a few years and a lot of separation, but she’d gotten everything she wanted. All her dreams had come true…
And then some.
Epilogue
Six months later
Tara slipped behind the wall, her breath held and her body completely still. She wasn’t supposed to be doing stuff like this anymore, but she had to get inside unnoticed. She couldn’t get caught sneaking in, or there would be hell to pay.
After studying the hallway for any sign of movement, she crept down the shadowy stretch of tight walls and glided into the empty office. She had approximately one hour before anyone came back and realized where she was.
And she couldn’t waste a single second.
Reaching into her pocket, she grabbed her phone and turned on the flashlight app. When he’d left the key behind, she couldn’t resist the urge to break into the agency and find out what he had hidden in his locked drawer. If she could locate it, test out the key, and open it, she would discover—
“Hello, sweetheart,” Jake said from somewhere in the shadows. “Looking for something?”
Tara jumped guiltily. “Uh…nope. Not at all.”
“Really?” he asked, his voice gritty.
She cocked her head. “Was this all a ploy to have a reason to punish me later?”
“Oh, you definitely earned one, but it’ll wait.”
Her heartbeat escalated. She loved his “punishments,” and he knew it. “But I didn’t do anything wrong.”
He switched on the light and leaned against the wall, his arms crossed and his brows up. “So you sneaked into my office when you knew I wasn’t here because—?”
“I knew you were here.”
He snorted. “You’re a horrible liar.”
“You tricked me
again
.”
He grinned. “Someone has to do it. You’ve been getting too cocky about your skill lately, with all these men fawning all over you.”
She propped her hip on the door. “Jealous of our coworkers?”
“You know I am.” He shoved off the wall and went behind his desk. “When it comes to you, I’m not the slightest bit reasonable. I’m the only one who gets to bring you home and make you come all night long. Only I know how those sweet lips feel wrapped around my— ”
“Shhh.” She flushed and peeked over her shoulder, but there was no denying the arousal his words brought to life inside her. Hearing him describe the way he felt when she went down on him made her want to drop to her knees in front of him. “Someone might hear you.”
He laughed. “We’re alone. I wouldn’t talk about you like that if we weren’t. You’re mine.”
“I noticed,” she said drily.
He shrugged. “So I’m possessive. It’s part of my package deal.”
“And I love every second of it.” She crossed the room. “Why did you trick me into coming here? Spill it.”
“What makes you think I wanted you in here?”
“You’ve been leaving me little hints all over the place for the last two weeks that something is in your desk. Something valuable and huge.” She sat down in the chair and crossed her legs. “Then, tonight, you supposedly go out on an assignment after ten at night, and leave the key on the nightstand table? You wanted me in here. Why?”
He motioned toward the desk. “Open it and find out.”
“Is this a trick?”
“Nope.”
She stood and came around to the other side. Watching him the whole time, she slid the key into the latch and pulled the drawer open. She bent down and squinted inside. Shaking her head, she turned back to him as she said, “Not a trick, huh? There’s nothing—” She broke off and covered her mouth. “Oh my God.”
He was in the same spot as before, only he had dropped to his knees. He held a brilliant marquise-cut diamond ring, and he had that endearing vulnerability of uncertainty in his gaze again. The one she’d seen only once before, when he told her he wanted to love her.
“Tara, you’ve completed me. I never thought I could be so happy until you came along and showed me how. I know we’ve been living together for six months now, and people said we moved too fast”—he took a deep breath—“but I don’t think we moved fast enough. I’ve known you for years, but now I want to know you’re
mine
. I want to make it official, and I hope to spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as
you’ve
made
me
.”
“You already have,” she managed to say, though she could barely speak through her swollen throat. “So much.”
“But I’ve barely begun.” He held the ring higher. “Tara Harris, ex-thief, owner of my heart, and genius—will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
She nodded, tears blurring her vision. “Yes. Oh my God, yes.”
He grinned and stood up, hauling her close and kissing her. She clung to his shoulders, her heart hammering in her ears, and he ravished her mouth. By the time he pulled back and broke off the kiss, she’d almost forgotten where they were.
And what he’d been doing.
Jake slid the ring onto her finger. It was a perfect fit, but of course it would be. He wouldn’t have it any other way. “I love you.”
Tara grinned at him and sniffed. “I love you, too.”
He hugged her close. “But I was wrong. You’re not an ex-thief.”
“What?” She pulled back and stared at him. “Sure I am. You saw to it that the last thing I stole was the vase a week before you crashed back into my life. I’ve been on the straight and narrow ever since.”
“Nope. Wrong.” He lifted her chin. “You stole one more thing.”
She racked her memory, trying to recall what she could have taken. Then she remembered the first day at his house, how she had found that picture of him on his dresser and stuffed it in her bag. It was on her desk now, framed beside the picture of her, him, and Fluffy—who still didn’t trust Jake. “The picture?”
He grinned and shook his head. “You can keep that. I realized you took it that day, and didn’t give a damn.”
She sighed. “Then what?”
“My heart.” He kissed her gently and rubbed his thumb over her lower lip. “You stole my heart, and I never want it back.”
“Good. Because I’m not
giving
it back.”
He swept her into his arms and shut off the light. “Now, about that punishment…”
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Acknowledgments
Thank you to all my readers. You’ve been there with me, some since my very first book, and I cannot express how grateful to you I am. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
About the Author
Diane Alberts
is a multi-published, bestselling contemporary romance author with Entangled Publishing. She also writes
New York Times
,
USA Today
, and Wall Street Journal bestselling new adult books under the name Jen McLaughlin. She’s hit the Top 100 lists on Amazon and Barnes and Noble numerous times with numerous titles. She was mentioned in Forbes alongside E. L. James as one of the breakout independent authors to dominate the bestselling lists. Diane is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.
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