Undercover Attraction (11 page)

Now she was sitting in her office
contemplating her next move. Of course she would have to apprehend
the female he had questioned and do it her own way. That should
wield some better results. And she would have to listen to police
reports to see if anyone had turned in anything she didn’t want
known.

That would be a major problem. Especially
for anyone who had looked at the disc. Even if it was coded in a
rather complex formula.

Mike had told her that one of the girls had
left the club with Jacob Nichols. That was rather odd. She knew he
wasn’t the type to pick up a one-night fuck. Even if he was
undercover at the club. Oh, she understood the horniness and had
even taken home a few men after leaving the place, but Jacob wasn’t
one to throw his affections around lightly, even to sate his aching
balls.

She had been lucky enough to spend two
nights in his bed months ago and knew the man could fulfill a
woman's every desire, but that had been that. No more invitations
had come and she couldn’t help wondering if his fuck last night had
been as good as she had been or not.

It was easy enough to find out and she fully
intended to when she saw Jacob next, but until then, she would
worry about the other girl.

#

As soon as Jenna left the station, she
called Mac on her cell phone. Mac had agreed to come in that
evening after the situation was explained to her. Jenna thought
that Mac was probably somewhat spooked after being followed home
and almost attacked. Of course, it was enough to terrify anyone.
She herself was afraid and she had the one man she wanted to get
rid of protecting her for the rest of the investigation.

She had been rather surprised when the old
Chief had informed her that an agent had been assigned to her for
protection. Even more so when he informed her it was Jacob. She had
adamantly refused until he had asked her if she would rather stay
there in precinct for her own protection, or have someone with her
at all times. Of course the obvious answer had been to have a- for
lack of better terms- bodyguard.

She almost wished she had opted to stay in a
cell. Especially since he was changing the station on her radio at
the moment. She was enjoying the hits, but he would have none of
it. All of a sudden, a loud sports announcer blasted over her
speakers. It took a few moments to sort through the boisterous
conversation before she picked up that she was being forced to
listen to a baseball game. Basically it was like listening to a
broadcast in a foreign language.

Opening her mouth, she looked over at him,
fully intending to berate him for touching her tuner then decided
against it when she remembered she had sworn to ignore him the
minute he sat in the passenger seat.

The entire ride home gave her a headache.
She was absolutely seething inside. It seemed like her entire life
was going to be turned upside down because of a stupid night
out.

She parked her car and turned the key off
rather forcefully, mainly to shut up the offensive game. She didn’t
dare look over at Jacob, mainly because he would see how much he
affected her. Climbing out, she gripped her keys in one hand, her
purse in the other, and slammed the driver’s side door, wincing
when she realized her poor vehicle had nothing to do with pissing
her off. That was all because of the man.

Within moments she was back inside her
house, which had been turned topsy-turvy during the first half of
the worst day ever. She heard Jacob walk in behind her and thought
to herself that this might possibly become the worst week ever.

Chuckles bounded up to her and launched
himself into her arms. He looked over her shoulder and let out a
vicious feline growl. She would have laughed, but the reminder of
who was staying with her for a few days dampened her mood even
more.

She cuddled Chuckles for a few moments
before setting about putting her house to rights again. Jacob
conveniently made himself scarce, scouting or whatever they
supposedly do when having to protect.

A while later, the grandfather clock chimed
seven and she looked around, realizing she had been cleaning for
almost two hours. Her kitchen and living room were back to rights
and her stomach let out a loud grumble, reminding her that she had
been practically starving all day.

She put away her cleaning supplies and had
just opened the fridge to see what she could fix when the doorbell
rang. Before she could even look out the peephole, rough hands
pulled her back.

Jacob had materialized from nowhere. He held
a finger to his lips, telling her to remain silent. Jenna realized
he had palmed a pistol and was holding it ready in case their guest
was unwanted. Ready to
shoot
someone.

He stood to the side of the door and quickly
looked out the hole. Then he smiled and looked at her, “It’s okay.
Dinner is here.”

Jenna threw the lock that he had apparently
engaged when they made it home, watching as he slid his gun into
the waistband of his jeans at his lower back.

So typical cop movie
, she thought.
She pulled the door open and almost drooled at the man standing
there.

He was tall, at least as tall as Jacob, with
dirty blond hair, light blue eyes, and a devil-may-care smile. His
features were softer than Jacob’s, but he did have a resembling jaw
line.

“Hey there, honey. Is Jake taking good care
of you? You could always come home with me if he isn’t.” His voice
was like a seduction, his lips softly accentuating every
syllable.

She didn’t realize she had been staring
until Jacob stepped in front of her, blocking her view of the
gorgeous stranger.

“Ignore him. He has absolutely no manners to
speak of,” Jacob threw over his shoulder to her, and then to the
stranger, “Where’s the food?”

The stranger gasped and held a hand to his
chest. “What? No ‘nice to see ya’, or ‘how was Cali'? Just a
grumpy, nonchalant, ‘where’s the food'.”

Jacob smiled lopsidedly, running a hand
through his hair. “You know better. It is good to see you, a
surprise though. And we're starving. Had a rather eventful day
today.”

The stranger pointed behind him, “It’s in
the car. There’s so much, I couldn’t bring it all in at once.”

They both walked out to retrieve the food,
Jacob looking back to her in an ‘I’ll be right back’ warning.

So she obediently stood at the door. And
even worse was that she involuntarily stared at Jacob as he walked
to the car. She had to mentally shake herself when she realized her
eyes were ogling his gluteus maximus. Thankfully, the other hot man
bent over to get the bags from the car, giving her another fine
view of male glutes.

Of course, she had to peel her eyes from
that fine scene, also and when she looked up, Jacob was staring at
her, his eyes narrowed. If she hadn’t known any better, she would
have giggled to herself for feeling like he was jealous.

But I do know better
.

They came back carrying two full bags of
Chinese food each, something she wasn’t surprised about. After all,
she had seen Jacob eat breakfast already. Once on the counter, the
bags were quickly being stripped open, the contents spread out
along the marble like a giant Chinese buffet.

She stood back, her arms crossed over her
chest, silently willing her stomach not to growl once she caught
the aroma of good Chinese. The two men went about opening the
little oriental boxes, rearranging the food according to some rule
she wasn’t privy to.

The blonde slapped Jacob on the back. “Damn,
man, how much food did Dad think you need? He sent half of their
menu.”

“Wait a minute,” Jenna broke in, confused as
to if ‘Dad’ ran a restaurant, or something else.

Jacob turned to her, a quirky smile on his
rugged face. “Jenna, meet my brother Alex. Alex, Jenna. Our Dad is
the ornery old bastard that assigned me as your bodyguard.”

Jenna let that sink in for a minute, not
knowing whether to be outraged that he didn’t want to be there, or
that there was a possibility he had told his dad to keep him on the
assignment just to irk her.

She walked around them, reaching for a plate
and fork that were set at one end of the island counter then stood
in awe as the two men dug into the food as if they were
starved.

After looking over what was in each
container, she set about fixing herself a plate of fried rice with
Szechwan beef, and Kung Pao chicken. She sat at the end of the
island, on her stool, looking at the two to either side of her.

“So did you ask to be assigned to me, or was
it just a whim?” she asked as she watched Jacob chew slowly, his
throat muscles working as he swallowed.

“Dad knew you didn’t want me around, so he
thought it amusing to put me on the spot. I didn’t choose this to
spite you, Jenna.” He stuffed half an egg roll into his mouth.

Alex was looking back and forth between the
two, trying to decide if there was more to the situation than Jacob
was letting on. From the way his brother was acting, he knew this
woman had gotten under Jacob’s skin somehow. And Alex wanted to
watch him sweat.

“Jenna, if Jacob is going to cause trouble
for you, we can talk to Dad and possibly have our assignments
swapped. I wouldn’t mind watching out for you. Hell, I might even
like guarding your body from others.” He smiled his seductive
smile, almost laughing aloud when Jacob’s face turned to stone.

“That won’t be necessary,” Jacob ground out
from between clenched teeth.

Of course, Jenna took the bait, “Well, can
you do that? Swap, I mean.” She looked from one brother to the
other.

They answered her at the same time, Alex
with “Possibly,” and Jacob grunting “No.”

She didn’t know who to believe. She really
wanted to trust Jacob since the Chief had told her himself that
Jacob was assigned to her, whether they liked it or not. Alex
looked like the kind of person who was carefree and liked to pull
Jacob’s leg, so she decided to stick with the Chief's orders.

“Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm stuck
with Jacob. Your father was rather adamant about that.” She saw
Jacob flip Alex off from the corner of her eye and she almost
laughed aloud at the boyish playfulness.

Alex pushed Jacob even further, “Well, if
you need me to come over for
anything
,” he winked at her,
“don’t hesitate to call for me. I don’t mind taking up Jake’s slack
at all.”

Jacob crossed his arms over his chest and
sent his brother a look that said,
go to hell
. Jenna
honestly didn’t think there was anything that Jacob was slacking
in, especially after their tryst last night. She couldn’t imagine
him being unable to hold his own in anything.

Alex reached over and took her hand, lightly
cradling it in his own. “I am dead serious, honey, if you need a
warm body, or someone to scrub your back, hit me up.”

She heard a faint growling sound coming from
her left and realized Jacob had gone primitive. Alex released her
hand, placed his little calling card in it and stood to leave.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t help staring at the man’s perfect
backside as he walked around her chair. Even worse was that Jacob
was watching her staring at Alex.

The two men walked to the door together,
shook hands, and whispered for a moment, too low for her to even
catch more than a tiny syllable or two.

Then Alex left her alone with Jacob. He
closed the door behind him with a thud and threw every lock on the
frame. Jacob stood there with his back against the door just
staring at her.

They stayed that way for a long moment,
saying nothing, just looking. Then Jacob moved first, pushing
himself from the door.

She watched as he crossed over to her, her
heart beating in her chest, her palms sweaty.

He placed a hand on either of her shoulders,
and leaned down to her, his lips hypnotizing her, begging her to
give in, but her brain saying no. Her head fell back the closer he
came to her, until his lips barely grazed her jaw.

“I am taking a shower and getting some
sleep. Don’t step out of this house, or open the door without
waking me.” His breath teased her earlobe as he softly whispered,
but his words were like a bucket of ice water against her heated
core.

He released her quickly and turned to the
hallway, leaving her to think of a hot male body covered in slick
water droplets. She got up to clean the kitchen, deciding that she
could possibly distract herself from the sound of the water
running.

A male curse rent the air, along with a loud
‘mreow’, and the slamming of the bathroom door. She peeked down the
hallway to see Chuckles sauntering towards her with that
satisfyingly glum expression on his face. She bent over to pick him
up, laughing at the curses coming from the hallway.

The
next day turned out to be a rather busy day for her despite her
reluctance about the man in the spare bedroom. She managed to keep
him off of her mind long enough to do the two piles of clothes in
the washroom, straighten her kitchen, sweep, mop, and vacuum, and
on top of that, she managed to have a bit of time to herself which
she spent making calls to family and paying bills online.

She had just finished up her grocery list
and was about to peek at the contents of her online webspace when
her unwanted guest awoke.

He stood against the wall next to the living
room, watching her flip through the channels on her TV. There was a
sense of calm that came over him each time he watched her. Although
it was unexplainable, he still wanted her with a fire he hadn’t
felt since his teenage years.

Something brushed his leg. He looked down to
see his archenemy wrapping his tail around his calf.
Stupid
animal
. He had done nothing that warranted the hatred this
creature had for him.