Daddy Devastating (7 page)

“No reason for him to do that. He’s watching us with an infrared thermal device.”

“A what?”

“It means he can see us. Not complete images, but the heat that our bodies are generating.” Russ turned and slipped his arm around her waist. He eased her closer. “It means Milo is trying to figure out if you really are my fiancée.”

Sweet heaven. Her first instinct was to jump back from Russ, because it made her skin crawl to think that someone was spying on them. But Russ held on to her.

“What do we do?” she asked.

“I stay here tonight.” He tipped his head to the bed. “There. With you.”

Chapter Five

Russ stared at the laptop and tried not to break the screen.

Silas had sent him the reports and pictures on Julia’s computer, since Russ didn’t have his own with him. And the FBI hadn’t wanted to risk having one delivered to the hotel, in case it would make Milo even more suspicious. If that was possible.

Russ wasn’t feeling good about Milo’s meeting. But then, he was feeling even worse about the pictures in front of him.

They were photos of Julia’s attack.

Everything had been documented by the San Antonio police and used to convict the SOB who’d done this to her. There it all was—the details of the assault with a deadly weapon, the position of each stab wound, every bruise and scrape.

She’d been damn lucky to survive, because any one of the stab wounds could have hit a vital organ. Added to that, she’d nearly bled to death in the trunk of her car. A passerby, out walking his dog, had heard her moaning and rescued her. It’d been cold that night, close to freezing, and the low temperatures had slowed her bleeding.

Julia was alive because of a freak cold spell and a dog who needed a midnight walk.

In other words, blind luck.

Russ wasn’t able to hold back his feelings any longer, and he mumbled some profanity. Her attacker had gotten a life sentence, but that didn’t seem nearly harsh enough for what he’d done.

Beside him, Julia stirred a bit, pulling the cover to her chin, but she went back to sleep. Good thing, too. They’d been up and down most of the night, with Emily feeding every four hours. Julia had taken the midnight shift, and after he watched how she prepared the formula, he did bottle duty at 4:00 a.m. Since it was going on seven, it wouldn’t be long before Emily woke up for the morning round. She might be a little angel, but she ate like a lumberjack.

He smiled at that thought. It’d be like having daily miracles, just watching her grow up.

Russ closed down the files on Julia’s stabbing, and then deleted them from her computer. He didn’t want her coming across them accidentally, even though she probably remembered every single detail in those reports. He certainly remembered the bullet that had landed him in a hospital bed for over a week; but as an undercover agent, bullets were a possible job hazard. Julia had been attacked on a date. Big difference.

Julia stirred again, moving from her side to her back, and shifting the comforter in the process. That shift exposed her breasts. She was wearing a gown and a robe, but the robe had opened, and he could see the outline of her nipples.

Too bad Milo’s infrared couldn’t read Russ’s dirty thoughts. There would have been no doubts about Julia being his fiancée. Well, Milo wouldn’t have had doubts about the attraction being real, anyway.

Oh, it was real, all right.

And the bed sharing hadn’t helped. It also hadn’t helped that he’d slept on top of the covers so there wouldn’t be any skin-to-skin contact between them. All through the night, Russ’s body hadn’t let him forget that he was in bed with an attractive woman.

Thankfully, Russ didn’t have to pretend to have sex with her. Since Milo thought Julia had given birth just two weeks ago, that gave Russ and her an excuse not to take the pretense to the next level.

Russ saw her eyes open. There was that sleepy flash of ice blue, before she gasped and tried to scramble away from him. She obviously wasn’t accustomed to waking up in bed next to a man.

He didn’t say anything, just gave her a few moments to pull out of the sleepy haze.

“Oh,” she murmured, and she swiveled around so she could see Emily.

“She’s still asleep,” Russ whispered.

Julia made a small sound of relief and sat up, her robe shifting again. He caught a glimpse of the scar at the top of her right breast.

She looked at his damp hair and his bare chest. “You showered already?”

He nodded. “About an hour ago. I washed out my shirt, since I don’t have a change of clothes.” He’d been as quiet as possible, so he wouldn’t wake anyone. And then he’d gotten some work done on her laptop. “I figured, with only one bathroom, I’d better get in and out before Zoey or you needed it.”

He glanced at her breast again and bit back a groan.

“Any news about the meeting?” she asked. Was it his imagination, or did she dodge looking at his chest, as well?

“No. Silas should call soon.” He paused and tried not to look at her. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“Yes,” she admitted, “but I’m going through with it anyway.”

“You’re a brave woman,” Russ said.

“Right. Remind me of that when it looks as if I want to turn and run.”

Oh, he would. But what he couldn’t seem to do was keep his mind off her breasts.

Julia’s gaze dropped down to her partially exposed breast, and she gasped again. She tried to cover it up, but Russ caught onto her hand.

“It’s okay,” he said, keeping his voice emotionless.

She shook her head and her eyes watered. She obviously wasn’t used to anyone seeing her old wounds.

Russ didn’t think. He just leaned over and dropped a kiss on the scar. The moment his lips touched her warm, musk-scented skin, he knew it was a whopper of a mistake. His sympathetic brain was trying to assure Julia that she was beautiful, with or without scars, but that stupid, brainless part of him below the waist assumed this was foreplay.

He got rock hard.

And he waited for Julia to slap some sense back into him.

But she didn’t.

She caught onto his face with both hands. Maybe to stop him from kissing her again, but she didn’t push him away, and she kept her touch gentle. She stared at him with those now-hot-blue eyes.

“I can’t,” Julia whispered. “I mean, I haven’t. I won’t…and I can’t.”

Russ tried to process that semibabble—was she saying she was a virgin? It would fit. The attack had left her with physical and emotional scars. But the virginity didn’t fit with the rest of her. She was beautiful by anyone’s standards, and certainly, after twelve years, some guy had to have been able to help her get past the wounds and make love to her.

“Never,”
she added.

Or maybe not.

“Oh, man. You’ve obviously crossed paths with your share of…jerks.” Though that was mild, compared to what he wanted to call them. “Never?”

“Never,”
she snapped. “It’s no big deal. I’ve never wanted to have sex. Not since the attack, anyway.”

Maybe she didn’t want to, but she had admitted she was attracted to him.

She pushed him away and tightened the robe back around her. That was his cue to drop the subject—and to ice down the hot blood he had for her. She certainly didn’t need a man with his track record. He was thirty-three and hadn’t dated a woman for more than two months at a time.

“Change the subject,” she insisted.

“Okay.”

Russ moved the laptop to the nightstand and looked at her—at the white terry-cloth robe she was gripping like a full-body chastity belt. And he knew he should just back off and leave this alone. But then he thought of Milo’s man watching them. Except, that was more of an excuse than anything, because mainly, he just thought about kissing that not-wanting-to-have-sex lie right off Julia’s mouth.

He leaned in and their breath met. Julia got that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, but she didn’t move away. So he got even closer, until his mouth hovered over hers.

And he waited her out.

“All right,” she snarled. She slapped her hand on his chest and pushed him away. But not nearly far enough. Besides, with her hand on his bare skin, it only made things more intense. “Maybe I do want you. But because I want something, it doesn’t mean it’ll happen. You’re not my type.”

“You’re not mine, either.”

Though it seemed true for both of them, he was still hard—and she seemed to be going softer, hotter and breathier with each passing moment. Everything kicked up another notch when her fingers moved. Just a little. But enough to glide through his chest hair. Maybe she wasn’t even aware of the touching, but he certainly was.

His phone rang, the sound shattering the insane moment. Russ fumbled to get his phone from his pocket so he could answer it before it woke Emily. But he wasn’t successful, because Emily immediately started to cry.

Julia sprang from the bed to get the baby, and Russ answered the call, because he knew it would be from Silas and therefore important. He only hoped he didn’t sound as out of breath or aroused as he actually was.

Damn, he’d let Julia get under his skin.

“How’s baby-and-heiress duty?” Silas greeted, probably because he heard Emily fussing. But Russ didn’t care for the man’s tone.

“It’s all right. Better than I thought it’d be.” And much to Russ’s surprise, that was the truth. He hadn’t minded the short sleep time in between feedings.

Julia was another story. If he had to sleep next to her again, it would require multiple cold showers and maybe a big rock that he could use to hit himself in the head.

“Well, I hope you’re rested,” Silas continued, “because its shaping up to be a full day. The meeting with Milo is all set at the state park at two p.m. I won’t be on the park grounds, because I want to stay out of sight, but I’ll be nearby, in case you can close the deal.”

So it was on schedule as planned. If Milo agreed to the one-million-dollar offer for the baby sale, then Silas was to arrive on the scene as the buyer. The next step was to get Milo to agree to a time and a place for the exchange. Silas would get the baby, and Russ would follow Milo or his henchmen back to his boss, Z. If there was no Z, and Milo was the sole person responsible for taking the baby, then Milo would be arrested.

With luck, they could have the baby by nightfall. And Julia and Emily would be safely on their way back to her estate. After that, Russ could, well, he could get his own head on straight so he could figure out how to approach the whole custody issue.

“So, is Julia Howell onboard for the meeting?” Silas asked.

“She is,” he said, though he was beginning to have more doubts about it all. “Please don’t tell me Milo’s made any other crazy requests.”

“No. Not so far. But there has been a hitch. I’m in the lobby of the hotel where you’re staying.”

“Why?” Russ demanded. “You know Milo has a man watching us.”

“I do. And he’s still there, parked less than a block up the street. I came in through the back. Neither Milo not his man would recognize me, and I didn’t know if you wanted to keep it that way.”

“I do.” Since Silas was going to pose as the buyer for the infant, Russ didn’t want Milo asking questions about why Silas had been at the Wainwright, where Julia was staying. “So why did you come?”

“I had no choice. Twenty minutes ago I got a call about someone else who was already here at the hotel.”

“Not Milo?”

“No. The stolen baby’s parents, Aaron and Tracy Richardson. I have them waiting in the manager’s office, but I don’t know how long I can talk them into staying put. The mother is nearly hysterical.”

Russ almost dropped the phone. “The parents? How the hell did they end up in the Wainwright Hotel in San Saba?” Russ tried to keep his voice down, but it was hard.

“My fault. They’ve been calling me for updates every hour, and yesterday I let it slip that we were in San Saba.”

“You what?” Russ couldn’t help it. He cursed.

“I didn’t mean to tell them,” Silas insisted, his voice suddenly louder. “It just happened. The mother was crying. The father was yelling. I was just trying to assure them that we were close to finding their baby.”

“And you did that by giving away our location,” Russ growled. “Did you also let it slip that
I
was here at the hotel?”

“No. But when they told me they were coming to San Saba, I said I’d meet them. I just went there to calm them down. Russ, they were scared, and I didn’t want them going to every hotel in town looking for me. That would have sent plenty of red flags up for Milo’s men.”

Yeah, it would have, but the parents’ arrival at the Wainwright would be a massive red flag on its own.

Russ had to get his teeth unclenched so he could speak. “Please tell me you didn’t meet the parents here, when you were trying to calm them down?” One meeting was bad enough, two would be a disaster.

“No. I met them at a café on the other side of town. I was careful, but the parents had someone follow me. And he must have been good, because I didn’t make him. He followed me straight to the Wainwright Hotel.”

Russ shook his head. “When were you here at the Wainwright?”

“Last night.”

Well, that was news to Russ. “Why?”

“I was going to do the security detail to escort Julia Howell, but by the time I arrived, I got the call about Milo and the meeting.”

And Silas hadn’t told him this, even though it could be a huge problem. “You risked Milo and his men seeing you here twice,” Russ pointed out.

“That’s why I went in the back. I was careful. But if Milo brings it up, we can just say that since I’m the buyer, I’ve been meeting with you to discuss the money and the details.”

That sounded logical, unless Milo was already suspicious of Silas. “This changes the plans for the meeting. Even if the deal closes today, I don’t want you to come waltzing in there while Julia’s around. We’ll wait until she leaves.”

“If Milo agrees to that,” Silas said.

Yes. Milo might be a problem, but they were going to have an even bigger problem on their hands if their covers were blown.

“I hope you told the parents they put their baby in more danger by coming here,” Russ asked.