Undercover Attraction (9 page)

Jenna just looked at him for a second. He
definitely had the body, and the haircut, but she met him in a
strip club. He was stripping! She decided to give him a chance
despite all the evidence against him, just in case this wasn't a
lie. “Prove it.”

“My badge is in my bag.”

She followed him at a distance, holding the
cordless phone in front of her like a weapon.

He fished his badge from his bag, tossing it
to her where she stood at the bedroom door.

She took it and flipped it open, sighing
with relief that he was legitimate. She tossed it back to him and
he tucked it into his back pocket, quirking an eyebrow when she
lowered the dangerous-looking phone.

She heard him chuckle, and looked at him
questioningly.

“You would do better to wield the cat,
instead of the phone.” He laughed, his face transforming into
something less serious, less sinister.

That’s when she noticed he was covered in
scratches. She sucked in her breath. “I’m sorry. Did Chuckles do
that? He’s never attacked a person before.”

“Chuckles?! You named that spawn of Satan
Chuckles? He nearly took out my eyes. In my sleep, no less.”

She started giggling. Then it turned into
full out laughter. And it didn’t stop until her sides hurt and he
was glaring at her for laughing at his expense.

“I’m truly sorry,” she managed to get out
between snickers. “The most violent I have ever seen him was when
he tore apart the bear. I just can’t believe he would attack you
for no reason.”

He was almost glad the cat had torn apart
the bear, because it meant he would have to spend more time with
her. But the downside meant that the cat was somewhere in the
house, plotting his next move.

“C’mon. I think you need to explain over
more coffee, just in case I'm still asleep," Jenna told him.

She led him to the kitchen, where,
thankfully, the ghastly cat wasn’t waiting in ambush.

Jenna poured them each a cup of coffee,
letting him put his own sugar and cream into his, watching him fix
a heaping plate of breakfast.

She sipped on her coffee while she watched
him eat. “So what do we do now?”

He studied her while he chewed on a piece of
toast. “Well, we could go back to bed and exhaust ourselves until
we fall asleep again and just deal with the problem tomorrow.”

Her face turned red, and her eyebrows
scrunched up, like she was trying to forbid a thought from entering
her mind.

“Or, I could go through the files to see
what’s on them, and report in to the station.” He popped a crispy
slice of bacon into his mouth.

“You aren’t looking at those files without
me,” she said over the rim of her coffee cup.

He raised an eyebrow, and one side of his
mouth quirked up. “Then there’s always option one- the
bedroom.”

She raised an eyebrow of her own. “I don’t
think so. We see how much trouble that got me into last night.
Let’s not go that road again. So option two it is, with one small
revision. I look too.”

“I don’t think so, Jenna," he said, copying
her words. "That stuff is dangerous information. You need to stay
as uninformed as possible so whoever is on top doesn’t know who to
come after.”

Hearing him say it like that dissolved her
curiosity. Her face paled. “Do you think they are going to come
after me? How did it get in the bag anyway? Should I hide out
somewhere? What about my sister and friends?” she rambled,
instantly nervous over her safety and that of her family.

He got up and came around the counter
towards her, putting his hands on her shoulders, looking into her
eyes. “Calm down. Take it slowly. No, I don’t think they are coming
after you because they would have to know who you are and where you
live first. I saw one of the guys slip it into your bag last night,
the one who was hitting on your friend Mackenzie. I think we should
at least warn them about going back there until this is cleared
up.” He felt her panic rising, and pulled her to him, doing the
only thing he could think of to distract her.

The kiss wasn’t intense. More like a sweet
caress to coax her to trust him. And even more surprising was that
she thought she really did. Granted, one night wasn’t enough to
learn if someone was trustworthy, but he was a cop, and that should
say something, right?

His mouth moved on hers slowly, taking his
time tasting her, running his tongue along the fullness of her
lower lip, sucking it into his mouth to nibble on the softness. And
just like that he wanted her again. Fiercely.

He lifted her against him, setting her on
the counter behind her, a squishing sound barely registering
through the haze of heat in his head. He groaned and deepened the
kiss, becoming more demanding, more intensely aware that she was
kissing him back every bit as passionately as he was giving to
her.

Jenna’s nails raked his scalp, her breath
became an act of sheer will. And then he yelled, jerking back from
her as if he had never been there.

Jacob flailed around for a moment, cursing
and trying to reach his back, until he turned just enough for her
to see the problem.

Chuckles was latched on to his back, his
claws digging into flesh, shredding the t-shirt that recently
hugged his body so perfectly. Now it was tattered and angry
looking, hanging in ripped ribbons along his ribs and shoulder
blades.

And Chuckles had picked the precise spot to
launch. He held on just below those perfect shoulder blades, his
body tucked into a furious ball, low enough that Jacob couldn’t
reach him over his shoulders, and high enough that only his tail
swished within distance at his lower back.

And the look on Jacob’s face… Jenna started
laughing despite the fact that he was screaming bloody murder, and
loudly announcing that he was going to neuter that 'fucking cat'
himself. He reached back, barely missed catching the tail that
swished back and forth merrily, and she took pity on him.

She gently detached Chuckles from his back
and cradled him in her arms just in case Jacob decided to make good
on his threats. But he just stared at the cat, and Chuckles stared
back, a grim sort of smile on his furry lips. She could imagine a
silent conversation going on between the two.

In this imaginary conversation, Jacob would
say:
Cat, you are one nanosecond from death.

And Chuckles would say,
Bring it on,
human:
to which Jacob would reply,
I am going to shave you
bald and dip you in steak sauce, then throw you in a dog pen so I
can watch you run from the big mean canine teeth.

Of course, to this Chuckles only had a
silent warning:
Stay away from my human.
She could easily
imagine Jacob laughing to this.

The imaginary conversation was over and
Chuckles jumped down, leaving them with his tail held high and no
backwards looks. As for Jacob, he was still looking angry, and
well, like the victim of a vicious attack. It was hilarious, and
before she could stop herself, she was laughing again.

Jacob’s eyes narrowed and he helped her jump
from the counter, watching as she doubled over at his expense. But
then a chuckle slipped from his lips when he saw her ass. He had
apparently sat her on the plate of scrambled eggs on the counter,
and now they were stuck to her rear, coating her jeans.

So while she was laughing at him,
desperately trying to catch her breath, he was laughing at her each
time she bent over. And honestly, he debated on telling her about
the eggs. It would serve her right since her cat had declared war
on him.

Then again, she did save him from the
hateful critter, despite laughing so hard she was probably going to
pee on herself any second. He guessed he owed it to her.

“You have eggs on your ass,” he said rather
loudly to get her attention over their laughter.

She slowly quieted, until only a giggle or
two escaped here and there. “What?” she said rather breathlessly,
and he barely caught it.

“I said, you’re ass is covered in scrambled
eggs.” Then he chuckled when she stood straight up, looking behind
her to the squashed plate no longer covered in breakfast. They were
now coated on her.

“Oh… You did that on purpose!” She turned
red as she twisted this way and that trying to look down at her
backside. “That is terrible!” With each step she took eggs dropped
to the floor with plops. “Ugh, gross.”

She turned to go change clothes, and glared
at him as she passed. His laughter got louder with every step she
took, with every squishy plop of eggs as they hit the floor. She
straightened her spine, and walked down the hallway to her
room.

“Don’t be offended. That’s the best looking
breakfast I have ever seen,” she heard him call out to her.

Her face heated further even though he
couldn’t see her. She quickly changed clothes, throwing her egg
coated jeans into the washroom as she passed it in the hallway.

He had finished his breakfast and was
rinsing the plate when she returned. Her phone chose that exact
moment to ring and she decided it was a good day to talk to
everyone, especially since a normal day was no longer an
option.

The caller id announced that it was Amy,
surprisingly, since she never woke up before noon. She pressed the
on button, absolutely terrified of the questions she knew would
spew forth from her sister.

“Hey. How’s the headache this morning?” her
sister’s bright, cheery, slightly slurred voice said through the
speaker.

“I’m fine. Isn’t it a bit too early for you
to be up?”

“Oh, I haven’t been to bed yet. Shea and I
went to a few of the local clubs then stopped off at IHOP for
breakfast. We are just getting in.” Amy yawned rather loudly into
the phone. “Actually, this is kinda important or I wouldn’t have
even called you since I know you have that yummy hunka-hunka
burnin’ love there. By the way, was it as good as his moves
promised?" She didn't stop to give Jenna time to answer. "Mac
called us a few hours ago, said that that stripper followed her
home. She didn't stay at the dorms with us last night. Mac said he
asked a lot of questions about the gift bag and got really pissed
when she told him it wasn’t hers.”

Jenna’s blood froze in her veins. “Did he
hurt her? What did she tell him?”

“Well, she basically told him to fuck off,
and when he tried to grab her, she pepper-sprayed him. She's fine.
He screamed like a little girl and ran away. She wanted me to warn
you though; she thought it odd that he wanted the bag back that
badly.”

“Thanks Amy. I know why he wants it back. It
might be a good idea for Mac stay with you for a few days, or tell
her to go somewhere else.” Jenna hesitated to tell her sister more
than was necessary.

“What’s going on, Jenna? I hate to think
that some kind of psycho stripper is after us. I’ve seen one too
many scary movies about this kind of stuff.”

Jenna sighed. “Basically, there was
something in that bag that someone wants back. Just keep your head
up, and stay away from any of the people in the club last
night.”

Her sister yawned again. “Are you okay?
Should we be really worried and run around in a panic?”

“I'm fine, and no, you shouldn’t be worried.
I’ll call you if things change. Keep your cell on you.”

Of course Amy could hear worry in her voice.
Actually, she was the one person Jenna couldn’t fool with anything,
no matter how hard she tried. “Are you sure? I can catch a cab and
be there in less than thirty.”

Jenna chuckled halfheartedly. “You go to
bed. I will call you if anything changes, I promise.”

“Okay. But only because I know you don’t go
back on your promises. I will call you this evening. Love you,
sis.”

“You too.” Jenna blew a kiss into the phone
then hung up. Hundreds of horrible thoughts went through her head.
All of which ended rather badly. Gruesome images of her friends
lying in pools of blood flashed through her mind, and for a second,
she almost believed they wouldn’t be able to get through whatever
insanity this was.

She looked over at Jacob, who was now seated
at her computer, opening the dreaded files. He looked up at her
when she walked near, then minimized the files so she wouldn’t be
able to read any of them.

Keeping her safe
, she thought,
of
course, I'll just look in my backup files to read it.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her
nerves a bit. “Are they going to be okay? Mac had that guy follow
her home, and I’ve got to admit, I’m getting a little scared.”

He could tell she was scared. Her skin was
pale, and her eyes sparkling with fear. “Everything is going to be
fine. I am going to finish looking at these files, then call in to
the department. Tell me what happened to your friend.”

Jenna explained what Amy had told her and he
reassured her that she did right by telling Amy to have Mac stay
with her. He knew now that someone was going to have to be an
inside bodyguard for Jenna until the main players were arrested. So
far, the information he had been combing over was going to be hard
to decipher. Much of it was in code, something he knew little
about. Hopefully he had someone who could easily de-code it when he
got it to the station. But first he wanted to make himself an extra
copy, just in case someone intercepted it.

He figured it was time he explained what was
happening to Jenna. He got up from the computer and pulled her with
him towards the couch. Small bits and pieces of stuffed animal were
still scattered about, and neither of them had attempted to sort
the drugs from the fluff. He made a mental note to pick it up for
evidence next.

She sat down next to him, her arms going
around herself defensively.

He tugged her a bit closer to him, trying to
give her some sort of comfort. She reluctantly slid closer to him,
letting him wrap an arm around her shoulders. “I was working as a
stripper undercover. There has been an increase of drug busts, most
of which contained drugs with the club’s logo on them, so my
partner and I were on assignment there to figure out what was going
on and how the drugs were being distributed without the owner
knowing.”