Undercover Attraction (19 page)

Jacob walked in just as Alex was commenting
on Amy's lack of a wedding ring. "Knock it off, Alex, before Amy
decides to file a harassment charge against you and I have to issue
you a restraining order."

The rest of the conversation just faded into
the background as Jenna took in Jacob's appearance. He looked
formidable in his uniform. And she always had a thing for men in
uniforms. Police, firemen, the Coca-Cola delivery man, any of them.
She looked him up and down without realizing she was even doing it.
His boots were shined perfectly, the black uniform almost more of a
suit than an actual police uniform, with a tie and cufflinks, but
with military buttons up the front of the jacket. The bulges at his
hips and under his arms testified that he was packing, and she
doubted that they were the only concealed weapons he carried.

Her eyes stopped on his face, and she was
aware that he was staring just as intently as she was at him.
"Please don't forget to feed Chuckles," she said as he reached out
to grab her list.

One side of his mouth quirked up, giving him
that boyish but sexy grin he had so mastered. "I will feed Satan, I
promise."

She nodded and waved her fingers at him in
dismissal and turned back to watching whatever was on TV.

After Jacob pulled Alex to the side and
whispered a few things to him, probably about don't let them out of
his sight, even to pee, Jenna heard the door open and close. She
heaved a sigh of relief that she had a break from the nerves he
seemed to scorch when he was around her.

Alex, of course was charming his way into
Amy's heart. Or at the very least, her bed. After a bit of childish
banter, they sat down to play video games, and Jenna quickly lost
interest.

"Alex, is there a secure computer I can use
around here? I need to work on my curriculum and lessons for my
first few classes in a few weeks."
Not really
. She just
wanted to check her backup file site that the disc data had
automatically been stored on until she could copy it.

"You can use the one in Jake's room. It has
all the top security software." Not to mention, he would be able to
see what she was looking at once he got home later, but Alex didn't
mention that.

She thanked him, and made her way to the
third floor, figuring it couldn't be that hard to find Jacob's
room.

It wasn't. In fact, the entire third floor
was his personal suite. A large gym, luxurious bath, smaller
personal kitchenette, two enormous walk-in closets, an office, an
impressive library, and her personal favorite- his bedroom.

The bed there drew her eyes, it was a work
of art in itself, and she realized that despite the dangerous
exterior, Jacob was a man of good tastes. It was of course another
four poster bed, made of the most perfect mahogany, with carved
posts, a navy canopy, cream and navy sheets in a modernistic
pattern, and large enough that an orgy would have room to roll
around on.

But what caught her attention wasn't the
mussed bed. It was the handcuffs he had hanging from the posts that
stirred her imagination, sending carnal images through her head.
Herself, handcuffed while Jacob loomed above her with her toys in
his hands. Jacob handcuffed while she teased and licked him from
head to toe, lingering everywhere in between. Jacob on top of her,
beneath her, behind her. She felt herself growing wet and needy,
and had to forcefully pull her eyes away from the giant bed that
promised her so much pleasure.
At least in her mind
.

A desk with a computer sat along one wall,
just to the side of the enormous TV mounted on the wall. She pulled
out the chair and sat, powering on the desktop. Of course, it also
was secured. An alert popped up on screen- "Verifying authority to
use this device, one moment please"- and after a few short seconds,
she was cleared. Figures, Jacob probably had a text message asking
for his permission to allow her to use his computer.

Another thought struck her, making her heart
leap. That also meant he knew she would be in his bedroom right
now…

Jenna shook her head, determined not to mull
on the thoughts once again in her head. She pulled up the browser
and typed in the website of her online storage destination. Using a
keyboard one handed was such a pain, but she managed.

She read her alert, which told her that a
new file had automatically been stored on her webspace. She opened
it and turned the volume down low on the speakers, just in case
Jacob had audio monitors in his house, which was entirely
believable.

The low audio that had been played the first
time the disc was opened once again played, then various data
folders came up, each one of them with documents encrypted in a
complicated code.

The first document was only about a page
long, and Jenna stared at it for a while, feeling as if she were
looking at an ancient dead language. She was a chemist, not a
translator. Maybe there was a pattern to the code. She pulled a
notepad from the desk drawer- surprised there was one- and grabbed
a pen.

She wrote down all of the amateur, childish
codecs she could think of, from numbering the alphabet, to
pig-Latin, but none of them fit. Then it hit her.

The code wasn't a
form
of language.
It
was
a language. The patterns flew in her head, just as
her chemistry formulas did, all placed in precise increments and
exact order. It was a form of mathematic equation that related to a
letter or word or series of words within a dictionary or word
glossary of sorts.

No- that was wrong. It all related to the
periodic table. Each series of numbers were a sort of map. A
numerical digit that directly related to the table, sort of a
longitude and latitude, only in terms of group and period, then a
count of how many digits the exact letter or letters within the
element the data code held. It was brilliant.

A huge smile split her face, and she felt
ecstatic. She could figure it out. Whoever had encrypted the
documents hadn't counted on the disc falling into a chemist's
hands, she mused.

Jenna got to work. The periodic table was
part of her brain, and she used it as a map for the code breaker.
It wasn't too difficult, just time consuming with one hand, so she
carefully took her sling off and eased her arm onto the desk to
work with both hands. Typing was easier and quicker that way.

She didn't know how long she had been there,
but it must have been hours. Half of the documents had been
deciphered, each more and more disturbing than the last. Drugs and
arms trafficking, dates and funds transferred, and more orders of
the same, as well as information about some bids for other
weapons.

But the worst was about the children.
Teenage girls bought for a minute price, then sold into a slave
trade or prostitution. Younger children sold for slavery to the
highest bidders and forced to be the weapons testing devices. She
tried to disconnect herself from what she was reading as she
decoded it, but it was almost impossible.

The lists of the individual children,
labeled with ages, dates instead of real names, and which country
they were purchased from. And sadly, many of them also with a date
of death.

A few tears rolled down her cheek, probably
the only ones shed for these poor lost souls, and for a second, she
let grief take her, shake her with large sobs. She closed the
documents, too tired and sad to continue for the time being, and
saved her translations on her webspace.

Her arm was sending knifelike pains
throughout her entire side, and she just wanted a quick bath and a
nap.

Jenna left Jacob's room, taking a quick look
at the clock. She had been there for five hours. Her stomach
growled to remind her that she hadn't eaten in quite a while.

Where was Jacob? She figured he would be
back by now.

Of course, he was sitting downstairs, with
Alex and Amy, laughing at them shooting each other in the video
games. Every head turned her way when she walked in.

Amy stood and walked towards her. "How are
you feeling? You look tired."

Jenna nodded. "And hungry. And my arm
hurts." Her eyes caught on Jacob's. His dark brooding stare somehow
darker, more brooding.

"If you would leave your arm in the sling it
wouldn't be hurting as badly," he said, raising an eyebrow
pointedly at her arm.

She had forgotten to put it back on earlier.
He walked over and eased her arm back into it, her grunt of pain
tearing a hole into his chest.

"Thanks," she muttered, even though she
thought it wrong to thank him for making her arm hurt worse and
having it in an uncomfortable sling.

Jacob nodded. "I brought food. Amy said you
didn't like to be disturbed when you were working, or I would've
come to get you a few hours ago."

Jenna shifted from foot to foot, looking
suspicious. He already knew he was going to check and see what she
had been up to on his computer, and her behavior at the moment just
verified that she had been doing something she didn't want him to
know about.

"Oh, yeah. My work. I don't like to be
disturbed. It's too complicated to pick back up where I left off."
She chewed on her lip a bit, hoping he wouldn't ask for any
details.

But of course he did.

"What kind of work were you doing that would
take so long? I've been back for hours." His dark eyes met hers,
and she barely stopped herself from telling him the truth.

"Elements on the periodic table." She
settled for a half-truth.

His brows lifted in confusion. "I thought
the periodic table was figured out by now."

"It is. I was, um, working on how the
individual elements combine to make something all together
different, or how you could remove one single element from another
to come up with something else. Lab experiments." She could tell
that she didn't fool him.

His mouth quirked to the side, and he almost
smiled at her avoidance of the truth. One thing for sure, Jenna
couldn't lie worth a shit. "C'mon. Let's get you something to
eat."

Lunch ended up being Chinese. The same
Chinese as before. Jenna lifted an eyebrow. "I take it you like
Chinese."

Jacob chuckled. "Alex does. He called in the
order then called me to tell me to pick it up because he wasn't
cooking. He claims he can eat it every day. I prefer a bit of
variety myself."

He was looking at her as if she was the
meal, and all of the images from his bedroom once again flooded her
head. She could drown as a happy woman in those images. A happy,
sated woman.

Change of subject, she thought. "Did you
feed Chuckles? Is he alright?"

Jacob's face changed so quickly, it was like
a tidal wave hit him. "I
hate
that cat," he said as he
opened various boxes half full of food. "He attacked me again, of
course, and added a few new battle scars to my already mangled
body."

Jenna gasped. "You didn't hurt him, did
you?"

What
?
No love for him for braving
the demon
? "No, the beast is fine. Now eat, take your meds, and
if you're good enough I'll let you take a shower."

A shower. That sounded wonderful to her sore
muscles. She obediently did as he said, silently eating as she
listened to her sister talking smack to Alex from the living
room.

"I thought you were a cop; letting little
ole me sneak up on you like that. Where's my competition?" Amy
said.

"You cheated," she heard Alex say back.

"
Oh, whatever! You just don't like losing
to a girl- Ooh! Another headshot!" She was glad that Amy and Alex
had bonded over the game. Although, she was sure it could get
brutal after a while.

Jacob had disappeared, so she finished
eating, took her stupid meds, and went back to sit with Amy, who
was again sneaking up behind Alex to cap him in the game.

A bit later, Amy agreed to help her take a
bath. Jenna lay there soaking in the luxurious tub, careful to keep
her dressings dry, wincing when Amy had her lean her head back on
an inflatable pillow so she could wash her hair.

She dressed carefully in some of the clothes
that Jacob had brought from her house then hugged Amy when she
decided to leave to go back to her dorms.

"Promise me you'll call me to check up on
me, in case he decides to keep me here forever. Oh, and make sure
someone stays with you. I don't want you alone at any time," Jenna
said as Amy stood at the front door.

"Mac is staying with me tonight. Neither of
us is going to be stupid, and I promise to call you every day
between classes. Mac and I will probably come over Thursday night,
since neither of us have classes again until after lunch
Friday."

They hugged again, and she almost felt
bereft as she watched Amy go back to the dorms, courtesy of
Alex.