Undercover Daddy (8 page)

Elaina had several
oh-mercy
reactions at once. Luke had a hot body. A body so hot that it made her hot. But she was also aware that she shouldn’t be looking at him and that she should be trying to hide what she suddenly wanted.

And what she suddenly wanted was Luke.

“The water will get cold,” she mumbled, saying the first thing that came to mind. It was absurd because nothing had the potential to be cold in that room. Everything was sizzling.

Luke snared her gaze and waited a moment before he cursed and stepped into the shower.

Elaina didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. She leaned her head against the doorframe and tried to stop the
sizzling
from getting any hotter.

Her body was acting insanely. She felt desperate and needy. Her, needy! She hadn’t experienced those sensations in years. Which made her think about the whole crazy notion of attraction. It was making her feel like a hormone-crazed teenager. That had to stop. And she would make it stop, somehow.

Elaina’s pep talk lasted mere seconds. She caught a glimpse of the outline of Luke’s body behind that shower curtain. That obstruction was useless when up against her overly active imagination.

She could almost see him. Naked and wet. Heck, she could almost see herself in the shower with him. Doing things. Having shower sex.

What would it feel like to have him take her right then, right there?

Would he be gentle? No, she decided. Not with his intensity. But Elaina was positive that it would be one of the most pleasurable experiences of her life.

Elaina was imagining the pleasure of such a coupling when Luke’s phone rang. Before going into the bathroom, he’d left it on her desk. Where he probably couldn’t hear it. Since there was no way she was going to go tapping on that shower curtain, she answered the call.

“Hello,” she said.

And she heard a long pause.

“This is Agent Rusty Kaplan. Is Luke there?”

Oh, Elaina really hated to say this. “He’s in the shower.”

Another pause. She could have sworn Agent Kaplan was filling in the blanks with naughty scenarios that involved Luke and her. But then, Elaina had done the same thing just seconds earlier.

“Get him please,” Rusty insisted. “It’s important.”

Elaina glanced at the shower. Oh, mercy. The agent would want her to do that.

“Is this about Brenda McQueen?” she asked, making her way into the bathroom. She was certain that snails had moved faster than she was moving.

“Part of it is. I
really
need to talk to Luke.”

Of course he did.

Turning her head, she tapped her fingers on the shower curtain. “You have a call from Agent Kaplan. He says it’s important.”

Maybe because she’d practically shouted, Luke turned off the water. Elaina grabbed a towel and had it ready for him when he pulled back the shower curtain. He tried to be discrete by using the curtain to cover himself.

It didn’t work.

In fact, it made things worse.

Elaina got another glimpse that was only slightly concealed with the opaque vinyl material. She felt herself go warm and damp, and she knew that, coupled with the preshower incidents she had more than enough visual information about Luke to inspire a whole lot of fantasies.

He took the phone and the towel and managed to cover himself. But not before she got yet another glimpse of something she shouldn’t be glimpsing at. Oh, mercy.

She had to fan herself.

With the water streaming down his body, he stepped from the shower tub and onto the mat. “What’s the problem, Rusty?” Luke asked.

Elaina watched his expression so she could try to gauge what the call was about, but there was no change in his demeanor. She started to step from the room, but Luke caught on to her arm. “I’ll put the phone on speaker so Elaina can hear this.”

“She’s right there with you?” she heard Rusty ask the moment Luke pressed the speaker function.

“You said it was important,” Elaina countered. “That’s why I got him out of the shower.”

“It
is
important,” Rusty verified after pausing. “Don’t trust Gary Simpson or Brenda McQueen. At least not until I can clear some things up. Let’s start with Brenda. She’s clean. Maybe a little too clean.”

Elaina moved closer to the phone so she could hear him better. Unfortunately, that meant moving closer to Luke. He smelled good, and she hadn’t remembered her soap smelling like that on her own skin.

“Brenda McQueen doesn’t have a driver’s license,” Rusty continued. “No loans, no credit cards.”

Elaina didn’t have to ask if that was unusual. She knew it was. Heck, she was in hiding, living a lie and she still had a driver’s license and credit card.

“You think Brenda assumed a fake identity or something?” Luke asked.

“Could be. Elaina might have a gut feel about this. Is she sort of recluse?”

“I guess you could say that. She doesn’t get out much, and when she does, she either jogs or rides her bike. I remember her saying something about having a fear of cars because of a bad accident when she was a child.”

“Dig deeper,” Luke advised the other agent. “What about Gary Simpson?”

“One thing popped up. He recently had a rather large amount of money deposited into his bank account. I can’t find a source for it.”

“Maybe a payoff,” Luke suggested.

“That’s what I thought, too. He’s certainly one to watch, especially since he’s a former Army Ranger. He was discharged because he failed a personal reliability exam. In others words, he had some issues that made the army think he was no longer a suitable candidate to carry combat weapons.”

Elaina knew none of that about Gary. Odd. Why wouldn’t he have mentioned his military career, especially since he believed she had an MIA husband? Or maybe Gary hadn’t bought her lie at all.

“See if you can access his military records,” Luke continued. “And while you’re at it, do a more thorough background on Carrie Saunders. It’s possible one of them is working for a person known only as T. This T was involved with Elaina’s ex-fiancé.”

Well, that got her mind off his body. Luke actually suspected Carrie of something so devious? Elaina might be able to believe that about the other two, especially Gary, but not Carrie.

“The exterior security equipment is installed,” Rusty continued. “It basically works like this. If anyone comes into the wooded area behind Elaina’s house, then the motion detector will trigger a silent alarm, which will then send a signal to your cell phone. It’ll sound as if you’re getting a text message, and on your phone screen, you’ll see the numbers 911. In this case, 911 means a trespasser.”

“Thanks, Rusty. Let me know as soon as you have those background checks.”

Luke ended the call and he placed his phone on the sink so he could give his towel a much needed adjustment. It was a little towel, and Luke was a big guy. Not a good combination. Well, not good unless she wanted another cheap thrill. She didn’t.

Really.

Disgusted with herself, Elaina forced her snail-pace feet to get out of there. She went back into her room and sat on the edge of the bed. Luke closed the door, but not all the way, while he dressed. Unfortunately, she could see his reflection in the bathroom mirror.

Sheez. She didn’t think her body could handle more of this, so Elaina forced herself to look away. She also forced her attention back on the issue at hand. And there was a huge issue at hand.

“Carrie isn’t behind any of this,” she informed him.

“
Everyone
is a suspect,” Luke countered. “If T wants the software modifications badly enough, then he or she would have paid big bucks for someone to find them.”

Elaina couldn’t argue with that, but she could argue with the overall logic. “Then why wait until now? If it’s Brenda, Gary or Carrie, why wouldn’t they have started looking months ago?”

“Maybe they’ve been doing just that.”

That sent a chill through her blood, but she couldn’t completely discount it. Gary had been inside her house dozens of times, and she remembered that he’d used her bathroom once or twice. He’d also replaced a burned-out bulb when she’d mentioned that she didn’t have a step ladder. Elaina hadn’t stayed with him while he did it, and he could have easily gone through the things in her room. Or worse. With his training, he might have been able to sneak in while she wasn’t even there.

“Okay, suppose one of them is our culprit,” Elaina said. “Why step up the search now? Why risk rummaging through the house while both of us are here?”

“Maybe your security system prevented other searches when you were away from the house. And as for the timing, maybe that has something to do with me. The person could have gotten suspicious of my arrival. If he or she has some computer expertise, it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out that I’m a federal agent.”

Elaina gave that some thought and couldn’t argue with it, either. “Especially if this person already knew that I didn’t have a husband.”

“You bet.” He opened the door and faced her. Not naked this time. He wore jeans and black long-sleeve pullover. Both items of clothing hugged his body. “That means we need to find out who T is because he or she might do something stupid to get those modifications.”

“Modifications I don’t have,” Elaina mumbled. But she wouldn’t stand much of a chance of convincing T’s hired guns of that. And then she thought of something else.

“What about this criminal you mentioned—George Devereux? The one you think had something to do with your wife’s death. Do you still think he might have something to do with the two jailed men?”

“It’s possible,” Luke said. “I’d planned to visit Devereux tomorrow. He’s in a federal prison not too far from here. But that visit’s probably not going to happen. With any luck, I’ll be doing the two interrogations at the local jail instead of seeing Devereux.”

Yes,
that.
It suddenly seemed like too much to do, and all of it was important, if not critical. Elaina groaned and scrubbed her hands over her face. “So, we have Gary, Carrie, Brenda, George Devereux and heaven knows who else who might do something dangerous and crazy to get their hands on Kevin’s final project?”

He lifted his shoulder. “And as you pointed out, it might not even be related to Kevin.”

She’d known that, of course. But it was
not
knowing which was the truth that was getting to her.

“What I worry about most is Christopher,” Elaina continued. “Greedy, desperate people often do greedy, desperate things, and I don’t want there to be any possibility for Christopher to be hurt.”

“Trust me.” Luke eased down next to her on the bed. “I want the same thing.”

“But how do we make sure it happens?” Her voice broke on the last word, and she thought for a moment that she might break, too. “There’s so much coming at me. I’m not weak, I swear. But it scares me that I might not be able to protect him.”

Her voice did more than break that time. It was a mess of quiver and nerves. Exactly the way she felt.

“My emotions are all over the place,” Elaina admitted. “Like I have a nasty mix of ADD, PMS and adrenaline.” She wouldn’t mention the lustful urges, but they were there. It was like there was an alley-cat war going on inside her body.

Luke gave a heavy sigh. One with undertones of frustration and perhaps even disbelief at what he was about to do. He slipped his arm around Elaina and pulled her to him.

Elaina wanted to reject the gesture. She wanted to move away to regain her composure. But she didn’t. She stayed put and took everything he was offering.

It felt like heaven.

It’d been so long since Elaina had relied on or trusted anyone other than herself. So long since she’d felt anything but lots of fear. But this wasn’t fear. Luke was warm, solid, strong, and, if only for a few seconds, he made her believe that all was right with the world.

“I’m not weak,” she repeated.

He chuckled. It was husky and low. Very manly. “You’re not weak,” he agreed. “Actually, you’ve handled this far better than most people would have.”

Alarms went off in her head. Big ones. Elaina pulled back and met Luke’s gaze. “That sounds, um, friendly and compassionate.”

He looked a little puzzled. “It was meant to be.”

“Then, this isn’t good.” Elaina groaned.

“Probably not,” he readily agreed. “This won’t be a good idea, either.”

“
This
?” she questioned.

He lowered his head. Slipped his hand around the back of her neck. And hauled her to him.

Luke kissed her.

His mouth was solid and warm, like the rest of him. That was her first thought. Her second, was that he was very good at this. He was at least a thirty on a scale of one to ten. He pressed his mouth against hers. Moving. Just a little. Touching the seam of her lips with his tongue. Again, just a little. But it was just enough to make her want so much more.

Giving into the need, Elaina lifted her arms, first one and then the other, and slid them around his neck. Her heartbeat slowed. Her breath became thin. Everything slowed, and the dreamy sensation of pleasure and heat washed over her. Like warm water on a tropical beach.

Luke pulled her closer to him. Until her breasts were against his chest. Until they seemed to be touching everywhere. Well, touching everywhere except in the place that wanted to be touched most. Elaina tried to push that urge aside so she could just concentrate on the pleasure of his mouth.

Long, slow French kisses. They were her passion. And Luke was very good at satisfying that particular passion. He kissed and tasted, savoring her as she was savoring him.

Elaina knew she should stop. This wasn’t a rocket science decision that required a lot of analysis. They were two aroused adults who shouldn’t be aroused even after seeing each other practically naked. Yet, that logic didn’t stop her when she slid her hand down his chest and had the pleasure of feeling all those muscles react and tense at her touch.

Luke touched, too. He never stopped the barrage of delicious kisses, but he escalated things in his own way. His hand left her neck, and he slid his fingers over her throat. Touching. Lighting little fires along the way.