Kidnapped Hearts (17 page)

“Well, that’s better. You aren’t smiling,
you’re glowing.” Sylvia waved. “You two love birds have fun.”

Pamela yanked Jake’s arm, dragging him
around the corner of one of the buildings near the marina. “What were you
doing?”

“Pretending we’re on our honeymoon,
Betty.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Stop that.” She swatted his hand, but he
didn’t move. Her hand stilled on top of his. “Jake.”

His dark wavy hair gleamed as his gazed
bored into hers. “I think we need to practice, so we’re convincing.”

“Prac—”

He cupped the sides of her face, breaking
off her words. The warmth of his breath caressed her face as his lips touched
hers.

Breathing in the bay rum scent of his
skin, her body purred, and she arched into him. Her hands traveled up the hard
planes of his chest to curl in his silky hair. He tightened his embrace,
plastering her body into him. At that moment, there was no one else, only the
two of them with the wind gently stroking them. He eased back, nibbled her lip,
and then kissed the hollow of her neck before stepping back. “I think we’ve got
it.”

Her voice abandoned her along with the
steadiness of her knees. She teetered and grasped his arm until righting
herself, then nodded.

“This is why we could never act like
brother and sister.” He brushed another kiss across her mouth. “I have cell
reception. I’d better call Larry.”

Jake walked to the end of the pier away
from the passersby who paused by the water, while Pamela sauntered to the
center of the pier and sat down on the graying wood, dangling her feet over the
water. This area had a calming effect on her. On Jake too, evidently. Ever
since they arrived, he’d been smiling.

With the phone to his ear, Jake paced
back and forth on the pier that ran between several large boats. He rubbed the
back of his neck, and his arm muscles flexed. Whatever Larry was saying
agitated Jake. His eyes landed on her, and he stopped pacing. A sickening
feeling slammed into her stomach the minute he motioned for her. Touching her
stomach, she crept to where he stood.

Checking to make sure the area was clear,
Jake uttered, “Wine disappeared. He cleaned out your mother’s and his savings
account before vanishing.”

Pamela trembled; a sour taste assaulted
her mouth. “How could he do that to Mom?”

Jake pulled her into his chest and
whispered in her ear. “The informant that told me Sanjar was looking to fund
his latest project also disappeared.”

She edged back to look at him. His hand
on her neck prevented her from moving. “We’re on display again. We’ll talk
later.” He lowered his head. A soft gentle kiss brushed over her lips, then he
spoke softly in her ear as he guided her to shore. “By the way, you’re off the
hook. You don’t have to take a lie detector test. I trust you.”

She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,
leaving room for an odd sound to escape. “Excuse me.” She briefly covered her
mouth before continuing, “Yeah, that concerned me,” she said sarcastically. She
didn’t comment on his
trust
remark.
For a person who had always earned people’s trust easily, winning Jake’s meant
the world to her.

He kissed her temple. “We can only talk
about the case in the open, no walls, and never at the same spot.”

She nodded.

“Let’s go home.”

She shuddered at the thought of going
home with him. His fingers dangled over her shoulder, and she intertwined hers
through his. “What about the lab results?”

His thumb made circles on the back of her
hand. “Black Scorpion related. A man named Darnell Brown’s fingerprints were on
everything we submitted. He goes by Jaws, and he’s not one to hide. He wanted
the authorities to know it was him.”

She shivered, remembering that night. “Is
he the man that watched me through the window?”

“I believe so.”

Nearing the restaurant, they smiled at
the people gathered there. “Howdy,” Jake said, relaxed in his new identity.

****

Back at the house, Jake gathered wood,
then headed toward the beach. “Pamela, would you bring the marshmallows and
pitcher of margaritas?”

Pamela smiled, then headed inside.

With each stride down the wooden sidewalk
toward the water, he questioned his motives. Life had already taught him to
stay away from women while he was on a case, something he had to keep reminding
himself of often. With Pamela, he couldn’t help himself. He acted an ass to
piss her off. It had worked, yet it also backfired. The look on her face in the
hospital room when he blew off their kiss had yanked his heart right out of his
chest. He couldn’t have talked without letting her see the truth, so he had
shrugged and made matters worse.

He dumped the pile of wood on the beach.
After some manipulation, the wood caught fire. As ambers sparked into the air,
his thoughts flashed back to Jennifer. Looking back, he knew he had been blind.
Even if Jennifer had been trying to leave Sanjar’s organization, the fact
remained that Jennifer partnered with a terrorist. He was the dumb shit who
didn’t notice the evidence in front of him. He turned the other cheek when
Jennifer came up missing for a few hours or how she left the room when she
received a phone call. Love can blind a person, or what he deemed love at the
time.

Telling Pamela that he trusted her had
been a monumental moment for him. He didn’t think he would ever be able to
trust again. Being around Pamela for the last few days confirmed what he knew
of her and her family, they were decent. He could trust his instincts and know
that lust wasn’t inhibiting his rationale.

Pamela’s flip-flops smacked on the
boardwalk and caught his attention. “Hey.” He pulled two chairs from a stack
near the bank and set them beside the fire.

Now that he trusted his feelings for
Pamela, the internal debate arose if he should act on them. The last thing he
wanted to do was hurt her. Every fiber of his being wanted to take her to bed.
If he did, then there would be a possibility he would hurt her. In the middle
of a case, how would she interpret his actions when the case was over? He
needed to slow down, and that meant waiting until they returned home.

He grabbed the bag from her shoulder and
pulled out the plastic cups. After pouring each of them a margarita, he placed
the pitcher on a small plastic table Pamela had moved between the chairs.

Settling in a chair, he stared at the
fire and forced the words to stop her from wanting to pursue an intimate
relationship with him. “You should know I stink with relationships.”

The fire grabbed Pamela’s attention as
she dropped into the empty chair. “Isn’t that what guys say when they’re
blowing off a woman?”

He sipped his drink and nodded. “Yes.”
His lips pinched together before continuing, “In this case, I’m not blowing you
off. I’m broken.” His gaze slid over her. “In the past, I never allowed a woman
to get close to me, and when I finally did…” He paused. “I found out that she
cooperated with a man I was building a case against, actually his mistress.”

Pamela studied the cup in her hand.
“That’s horrible.”

He leaned back in his chair and closed
his eyes. It was hell, and he needed to get over it. “You know this attraction
between us can’t go any further right now.”

“No, I don’t.”

He kept his eyes closed. If he looked at
her, he’d lose his courage to do what had to be done. “Be patient.”

****

Later that night, Pamela stared at the
ceiling as she tossed and turned. Soon after Jake’s confession, they both
decided to turn in. She was thankful he trusted her enough to say what happened
to him in the past. On the other hand, she didn’t agree he was broken. After a
simple kiss on her cheek, he said he’d see her in the morning. A shot of
disappointment had run through her blood stream. She had craved for more. Now,
in her bed, the moonlight shining in her face, she couldn’t sleep. She threw
off the covers and moved to the balcony. The night air engulfed her like a warm
blanket. An owl flew by, hooting, and the
Chesapeake Bay
hit the shore, calling her name.

Minutes later, stuffed into the
undersized bathing suit, she turned off the alarm to the house, then grabbed a
beach towel from inside the screened-in porch. She let the moonlight guide her
way to the water. The soft glow sparkled off the slow moving water like
diamonds, beckoning her to walk the final twenty feet. The tepid water tickled
her body as it hit her stomach.

Her sexual frustration had maxed out.
Watching Jake walk around in the towel had almost given her enough nerve to
march into his room and snatch it off. She laughed, wondering what he might
have done. Given how the evening played out, she should have followed her urge.
She never dreamed he would have turned her away. Actually, he didn’t. Though,
he did dismiss her.

She dove in the water, experiencing the
tightness of her skin and the muscles in her stomach contracting. It felt
fabulous. She ducked under the salt water again, and anguish rose. Again, she
went under the water, hoping it would somehow be therapeutic and squelch the
thought of the past few days. It didn’t work.

She planted her feet and propelled her
head above the water’s surface. As her toes gripped the murky sand that covered
the bay floor, she extended her arms over her head and screamed. She yelled to
relieve her pent-up anger, to unleash the fear she consistently felt of
impending danger. And above all, to relinquish her mind and body from the
turmoil she stayed in concerning Jake. Even if he appeared not to be fleeing
from their attraction, something kept him from giving himself to her.

****

A scream shot Jake out of the bathroom.
He’d been spying on Pamela in a bathing suit that barely covered her luscious
breasts ever since she snuck out of the house until nature called him away. In
his underwear, he dashed through the sliding doors in his bedroom and spotted a
silhouette walking out of the water. Looking through the binoculars, he
released a breath. Pamela was okay.

There was something sensual about
surveilling her through binoculars. Not quite the upstanding thing to do. Then
again, it was his job to watch over her. Outside of tying her to a bed, which
wasn’t a terrible idea, he didn’t have any other choice.

Pamela’s next movement shocked him. She
unfastened the top of her bathing suit. The discarded top landed on the sandy
beach.

Jake sucked in a breath and leaned
forward against the railing, supporting his weak knees. Pamela pulled the
strings on each side of her too tight bikini bottoms. It slipped away.

Hard as a rock, he observed a butt naked
Pamela dash into the water. Jake swallowed as her firm mounds disappeared. The
sight hypnotized him until a strange prickling at the base of his neck occurred,
his hair standing on end. He surveyed the stretch of beach. Nothing. He focused
back on Pamela.

“Damn it.” The realization smacked him in
the head like a tree branch. He had been so engrossed keeping an eye on her
that he forgot agents roamed the area.

After lobbing his binoculars in a nearby
chaise, he descended the deck stairs, bounded down the boardwalk, and scrambled
through the sand. “Pamela!” Crap, he should have yelled Betty. The concern
dissipated as his mouth watered and his dick twitched. Pamela faced him. Her
lush globes swayed, beckoning him. His eyes drifted south as her waist broke
the water’s surface. The moon illuminated the dark hair of her mound.

He shoved his lust aside as anger rose.
“Anyone could see you.” He grabbed her beach towel from the ground. Within
seconds, he stood in front of her, blocking her luscious body from anyone who
roamed in the shadows. The problem was he had a direct visual of her feminine
form. Like a divining rod looking for water, his male anatomy pointed directly
at what it wanted.

He groaned and pressed his hand against
the unthinking part of him. The ache made him cranky. “What the hell are you
doing?” He moved his hand and touched her arms; her naked breasts touched his
bare chest. They both stilled. He wasn’t this strong. No man was. “God,
Pamela,” he said on a sigh.

The hunger in her eyes drove him crazy.
He wanted his lips on hers, his hands on her firm breasts.

She shifted, and her nipples stroked his
skin.

“For the love of God,” he groaned. His
voice sounded strained, even to him.

“Should I remain patient?”

His eyes lifted from her breasts that
begged to be touched, landing on the mischievous gleam in her eye. “No. Yes.
Damn it.” He raked his hand through his hair and sucked in a mouthful of
fortified air. “I can’t … but yes, we both need to be patient.”

He grasped her shoulders, turning her
until her back faced him. “Raise your arms.” He wrapped the towel around her,
commanding his hands not to stray from her shoulders. Despite his efforts not
to touch her, he kissed the back of her neck.

She eased away and faced him, her lips
turning up at the corners. “Remember, be patient.” She whisked by him.