Undercover Attraction (20 page)

She went back to her room to do a quick
inventory of the things Jacob had brought her from her house,
making sure he had gotten everything on her list. He had even added
a few things he thought she might like, such as her own pillow, her
brush, the funny looking bear that she kept at the foot of her bed,
and a few other comforts that he must have thought would ease her
stay. She dressed in another set of button down pajamas, having to
wiggle this way and that to get them fastened, then went in search
of him to thank him.

Her mouth watered when she found him. He was
making laps outside in the pool, wearing a pair of light blue swim
trunks low on his hips, the muscles of his back and shoulders
powerfully rolling as he cut effortlessly through the water.

He saw her and turned, pushing himself out
of the water in front of her.
When had she walked to the edge of
the pool
?

She was mesmerized by the water dripping
slowly down his chest and stomach, as if it wanted to linger and
caress his skin as long as it possible could. She licked her lips,
wishing she could taste each of those tiny drops, dry him with her
tongue.

She watched as a drop slid down his abs,
making a trail down to his trunks, and her eyes followed it,
wanting to be that drop on his skin.

If only he weren't clothed… He should swim
naked from now on. She noticed that part of his trunks grew larger
as she stared at it.

"You keep looking like that and you'll get
more than you are asking for." His voice broke the spell, and her
face flamed.

He laughed as her eyes grew large and her
cheeks pinkened. Her blush was lovely.

"I'm sorry," she stammered, quickly turning
her back to him.

"For admiring my body? Are you apologizing
because I'm in good shape?" He tried to keep the laugh out of his
voice, but teasing her was so much fun, especially when she wasn't
angry with him.

"No. I'm apologizing for ogling you." Her
face flamed hotter.

He reached out and turned her, lifting her
chin, making her eyes meet his. "I'm not sorry for anything. And I
take your fascination as a compliment."

Of course that sideways grin of his always
eased her nerves, and she found herself smiling back.

"Was there something you wanted, or did you
just want to watch me swim?" He clenched his hands to keep from
reaching out and pulling her to him. He wanted to kiss her so
badly.

She drew in a deep breath. "I wanted to
thank you for the additional belongings you brought from my house.
It was thoughtful, and I appreciate it."

"Not as much as I will," he muttered to
himself.

"What?"

"You're welcome, Jenna." He reached past her
to the towel on the lounge. His face was mere centimeters from
hers. If she just moved a hair, she could press her lips to his,
feel his tongue sliding against hers…

He wrapped the towel over his shoulders, and
sat on the lounge chair, lifting his fingers in invitation.

She sat next to him, lifting her face to the
sunlight of the evening, letting the fresh air sink into her
skin.

Jacob watched her silently, cursing the
aching length between his legs, wanting to ease himself into her
and replace her fear with desire. She looked so fragile, with the
sun on her face, as if she had only a second to enjoy the day
before reality struck hard and fast.

And he knew too well how she had a right to
be so afraid. Whoever was behind this would kill her without any
remorse. In fact, had already tried. He was just glad he had been
there to stop it. If he hadn't… His gut twisted at the thought, and
he pushed it from his mind.

Mike had been found dead just a few blocks
from her house a few hours ago. No doubt it was a warning. And for
some reason, the FBI had jumped on the BMW driver as soon as they
reported him arrested, so now no one in their precinct could
interrogate him until they got clearance. They had to crack what
was on the disc, not only because it was important to take the man
down, but more importantly, he could eliminate the threat to
Jenna.

His Jenna.

He looked over at her, wondering why she
wasn't married with tons of babies bouncing on her knee. Some men
were just incredibly stupid. Like her ex, whom he had paid a visit
to earlier.

Now there was a man who was a menace to the
female society. Jacob had told him what he thought of him, in no
uncertain terms. Needless to say, he would be sporting a broken
hand for a while, not to mention he would never bother Jenna
again.

Jacob understood why she would be scared to
jump into other relationships, but by now she should have gotten
over it. Then again, he had seen women who had previously been
abused before think that they didn't deserve anything better. He
hated that they couldn't continue their lives without fear of being
hurt by their significant other. Or even worse, expected it.

Was that why she was still unattached? Fear
of being hurt again? It made sense to him, but now he could
guarantee that her ex would never be out of jail to hurt her
again.

Jacob was gun shy himself. His mother had
left his father because he wouldn't give up being a cop. She used
to say that he loved his city more than he did her. The truth was
that she wasn't willing to share him with anyone or anything else,
even her sons. His mother had been from money. The kind that wasn't
made, but was just always there, and when she had married his
father, she had been the center of attention. Once he and his
brother had come along, she grew tired of not having the money and
attention that she claimed to have deserved, and left when Jacob
had been a young teenager.

Granted, his father was a hard man to live
with, and had devoted any spare time he had to the city, but he had
been a good husband, a good father, and then a good mother to Jacob
and Alex also when their mother had left.

Jake had always told himself that if a woman
couldn't live with what he loved to do, then it wasn't meant to be,
but now, watching Jenna's face, he knew he would give up anything
for her. Even his job. He had enough money in investments to live
comfortably for the rest of his life.

But first he had to save her. The guys at
the office had no luck cracking the disc so far. They were stumped.
They couldn't figure out a method to the coding, they said it was a
random sequence of numbers, and the only letter within the entered
code was a j, everything else was numbers. It made no sense.

"If you talk about it, you'll feel better,"
Jenna's voice broke into his thoughts. She had looked over at him,
with his brow wrinkled, his eyes down, lost in thought, and felt
bad for him.

When she spoke, he looked back at her. It
wasn't in his nature to discuss his cases with anyone outside of
the precinct, but she was involved. He also didn't want to put her
in any more danger than she was already in by disclosing any
additional information. But it was her life at stake, and he felt
she deserved to know something about it.

"Jenna, you might be staying with me for a
while," he said carefully, trying to judge her reaction.

She looked at him for long seconds, chewing
the inside of her cheek before speaking. "How long is a while?"

Jacob shrugged. "It depends on how long it
takes us to track this guy down and put him away. May be a week or
two, or may be a year. There's never a definite time frame."

She shook her head vehemently. "My classes
start in 3 weeks. I can't still be in this- this-
predicament
- when that happens."

He looked over at her, a disbelieving look
on his face. "Okay. In that case, I will call the murderers, drug
dealers, and ammunitions traders-"

"Don’t forget the slave traders," Jenna
piped in, aggravated.

"-and let them know to please hurry up and
get caught so that you can go back to teaching in 3 weeks. I'm sure
they will all just walk into the precinct and confess to wanting
you dead and then go happily to jail."

She blanched, her eyes wide with fear. "I'm
sorry, Jacob. I didn't mean to sound unreasonable. I just have a
life and can't afford to miss work or even go on a vacation for
long."

He sighed, regretting that he had scared
her, and possibly hurt her feelings. He reached over and pulled her
gently onto his lap, cradling her to him. "I didn't mean to snap. I
just wanted you to realize that this could be a long case, and
exposing yourself will end in disastrous results." He didn't need
to point out her injuries that had already happened.

Her head nodded against his chest. "I know.
I'm just being irritable. I hate being bottled up with nothing to
do, and no say in what I can do."

Jacob thought of her interruption earlier.
"How do you know that these guys are into slaves also?" She was
probably just throwing a guess, adding to the bad things that she
already thought of the bad guys.

Jenna chewed on her lip. She had said too
much. No point trying to conceal it now. She wondered how mad he
would be.

"I
looked at the disc." She kept her eyes down, avoiding his.

"You did what?!" He held her at arm's length
to stare at her in horror. "Jenna, you're just putting yourself in
a worse position. Where did you get the disc from?"

She nibbled on her lip again, looking like a
child who knew she was in trouble. "My backup site. It
automatically saved there when I put it in my computer at
home."

Jacob had been over the data a hundred
times, and nothing had said anything about slaves.
Or had
it?
"I didn't see anything about slaves in there."

She gasped. "Your guys haven't cracked the
code yet? I thought you would have had someone on this
already."

"I did. Wait- You cracked the code? You can
decipher that mess?" His anger and disbelief faded in favor of awe.
He had put his best encryption team on the data and they had
translated none of it as of yet. How had she figured it out?

She nodded. "It was like chemistry to me. I
have most of it already translated, with the exception of the two
largest files. I even saved the translations on my backup site. The
code was founded using the periodic table, not a randomly generated
numerical code. That is why the only letter in it was a j, the
periodic table has all of the alphabet except for it."

Jacob had been waiting on that information.
There was probably quite a bit of info that could lead them to the
ringleader. He was so happy he could kiss her.
In fact
-

Jenna was surprised when his lips crushed
down against hers. She felt panicky for a second then remembered
her promise she had made to Amy to at least
try,
and relaxed
against him.

Jacob's tongue moved excitedly against her
lips, seeking entrance. She opened her mouth for him and moaned
when his tongue rubbed against hers.

They both felt when the kiss became
something else entirely. No longer was it an impulsive act, but
slowly becoming a seduction as old as time.

Jacob's hands threaded in her hair, just as
Jenna wrapped her arm around him, raking her short nails against
his neck.

He shuddered as her fingers caressed his
nape and he held her head, angling her mouth further so he could
kiss her even deeper.

It was an onslaught of sensation. His tongue
dueled with hers, first demanding and brutal, then teasing and
caressing, coaxing her to respond every bit as eager as he.

And she did.

A wet heat began to pool between her thighs,
as her heart sped up its erratic rhythm. One of his hands roamed
her back, then gripped her hip, sliding her tighter to his
chest.

She felt his erection through her jeans,
pressing adamantly against her backside. The temptation to rub
against it was just too much, and she wiggled a bit on his lap,
wringing a groan from him.

Temptress,
he thought. He moved his
hand from her hair to her breast, filling his palm with the plump,
warm weight, rolling his fingers until he could feel the pucker of
her nipple in his hand.

She moaned into his mouth when he flicked
against it with his finger, lightly pulling it into a hardened
peak. He turned her with his hand on her hip, laying her back
against his front, allowing himself better access to her body.

Jenna shuddered as his hands slowly slid
lower, her stomach quivering as his fingers grazed her ribs. He
lightly caressed her lower belly as his hand worked on the button
to her jeans.

Finally
. He worked his fingers into
her pants, looking down her body at his hands, feeling another
burst of desire as he glimpsed the black lace panties that she had
bought from the mall yesterday. His cock was as hard as steel
beneath her, growing harder by the second as she squirmed her
backside against it on his lap.

The damp heat between her legs welcomed his
fingers, scalding him, making his patience evaporate in a torrent
of lust. One finger traced her slit upwards, finding and circling
around her clit in a slow glide of slick pleasure.

Her back arched, and she ground downward,
almost making him spill inside his swim trunks. The little noises
she was making in the back of her throat made him lose his
thoughts, until only one thought remained.
Need
.

He pulled away from her, chuckling at her
cry of protest, but quickly stripped her of her jeans, groaning
when he saw the way the black lace hugged her curves. He could
almost be jealous of the material. He slowly slipped the buttons of
her shirt loose, then, careful of her arm, pulled it off. No bra.
Perfect
.

Gently turning her in his lap so she
straddled him, he latched onto a nipple and teased her until her
nails bit into his scalp. His hand once again slid down between her
thighs, finding and tormenting her clit until Jenna thought she
would come just from the friction.