In Bed With The Devil (3 page)

“No,” he said flatly. Women tried to get close and he didn’t let them.

“Me, either,” she said with a sigh. “Which is deeply tragic. I want to be in love. I’ve been close. I thought I was in love, but now I’m not so sure. I have trust and commitment issues. It’s from losing my mom when I was young and then losing Hunter. Isn’t it interesting that knowing what the problem is doesn’t mean I can fix it?”

He didn’t know what to say to that. In his world, people didn’t talk about their feelings.

“You lost a brother when you were young,” she said. “That had to have affected you.”

No way he was thinking about that. He stood. “I’m done. I’m going to take a shower.”

She rose and moved close. “Want to take one together?”

He had an instant image of her naked, water pouring over her body. How would she feel? His fingers curled slightly, as if imagining cupping her breasts.

Damn her, he thought. She wasn’t going to win. It was time to stop playing nice.

He moved forward, crowding her. She stepped back until she bumped into a weight bench, then she dropped into a sitting position. He crouched in front of her.

“You do not want to play this game with me,” he told her in a low voice. “I’m not one of your brainy book guys. I have seen things you can’t begin to imagine, I have survived situations you couldn’t begin to invent. You may be smart, but this isn’t about your brain. You can play me all you want, but eventually there will be consequences. Are you prepared for that, little girl?”

“I’m not a little girl.”

He reached behind her and wrapped his hand around her ponytail, pulling just hard enough to force her head back. Then he put his free hand on her throat and stroked the underside of her jaw.

Her eyes widened. He sensed her fighting fear and something else. Something sexual.

He knew because he felt it, too. A pulsing heat that arced between them. Need swirled and grew until he wanted to do a whole lot more than teach her a lesson.

Then she smiled. “I’m getting to you, aren’t I?”

He released her. “In your dreams.”

Back at the house, Meri went up to her room to change clothes. She didn’t offer to help Jack with his. After their close encounter at the gym, she needed a little time to regroup.

There had been a moment when Jack had touched her that had if not changed everything then certainly captured her attention. A moment when she’d been aware of him as being a powerful man and maybe the slightest bit dangerous.

“I’m not impressed,” she told herself as she brushed out her hair, then slipped into a skimpy sundress that left her arms bare. “I’m tough, too.” Sort of.

Jack was right. He’d been through things she couldn’t begin to imagine. While they’d both changed in the past eleven years, she wondered who had changed more on the inside. Was the man anything like the boy she’d both loved and hated?

Before she could decide, she heard the rumble of a truck engine. A quick glance at her watch told her the delivery was right on time.

“It’s here! It’s here!” she yelled as she ran out of her room and raced down the stairs. “Jack, you have to come see. It’s just totally cool.”

She burst out of the house and danced over to the truck. “Were you careful? You were careful, right? It’s very expensive and delicate and I can’t wait until you set it up. You’re going to calibrate it, right? You know how? You’ve been trained?”

The guy with the clipboard looked at her, then shook his head. “You’re a scientist, aren’t you?”

“Yes. How’d you know?”

“No one else gets that excited about a telescope.” He pointed back at the compact car parked behind the truck. “He calibrates it. I just deliver.”

Jack walked outside and joined her. “A telescope?”

“I know—it’s too exciting for words. It was very expensive, but the best ones are. You won’t believe what we’ll be able to see. And it’s so clear. How long until sunset?”

She looked at the sky. It would be too long but worth the wait.

“You bought a telescope for the house?” he asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“We already have one.”

She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a toy. This is an instrument.”

“But you’re only here for a month.”

Less if her plan went well. “I know, but I want to see the stars. Everything is better when there are stars to look at.”

“You’re leaving it in place, aren’t you?”

“For the families,” she said, watching anxiously as the ramp was lowered on the truck. “I’ll write up some instructions, although it’s computer-guided. They won’t have to do anything but type in what they want to see, then stand back and watch the show. Not that we’ll be using the program. I can find whatever you want to see.”

“I have no doubt.”

She glanced at him. “What?”

“Nothing. Just you.”

Which meant what? Not that Jack would tell her if she asked.

“Hunter would have loved this,” she said absently, knowing her brother would have made fun of her, then spent the whole night looking at the sky.

Thinking about her brother was both wonderful and filled with pain. While she appreciated all the memories she had, she still had a hole in her heart from his passing.

“I think about him every day,” she told Jack. “I think about him and wish he were here. Do you think about him much?”

Jack’s expression closed and he turned away. “No. I don’t think about him at all.”

She knew he couldn’t be telling the truth. He and Hunter had been close for a long time. They’d been like brothers. Jack couldn’t have forgotten that.

Her instinct to be compassionate battled with her annoyance. Temper won.

“Most people improve with age,” she said. “Too bad you didn’t. You not only break your word but you’re a liar, as well.”

“They’re building more roads in Afghanistan,” Bobbi Sue told him. “They’re looking at maybe an eighteen-month contract, but we all know those things take longer. And Sister Helena called. They want to take in another convoy of medical supplies.”

His business provided protection in dangerous parts of the world. His teams allowed building crews to get their jobs done and get out. The work was dangerous, often a logistical nightmare and extremely expensive. His corporate clients paid well for what they got.

The corporate profits were channeled into funding protection for those providing relief efforts in places often forgotten. He’d grown up in the shadow of the Howington Foundation, a philanthropic trust that helped the poor. Jack hated having a number after his name and had vowed he would make his own way.

He had. He’d grown his company from nothing, but he couldn’t seem to escape that damn sense of duty. The one that told him he needed to use his profits for something other than a flashy lifestyle.

His critics said he could afford to be generous—he had a trust fund worth nearly a billion dollars. What they didn’t know is he never touched it. Another vow he’d made to himself. He’d grown up with something to prove. The question was whether or not he would have achieved enough to let that need go.

“Get Ron on the contract,” Jack told his assistant. “The usual clauses. Tell Sister Helena to e-mail the best dates for the convoy and we’ll get as close to them as possible.”

“She’s going to want to leave before you’re back from your vacation in Tahoe.”

“I’m not on vacation.”

“Hmm, a month in a fancy house with nothing to do with your time? Sounds like a vacation to me.”

“I’m working.”

“Talk, talk, talk.”

Bobbi Sue had attitude, which he put up with because she was the best at her job. She was also old enough to be his mother, a fact she mentioned on a regular basis, especially when she hounded him on the topic of settling down.

“Someone else will have to take Sister Helena’s team in,” he said. “See if Wade’s available.” Wade was one of his best guys.

“Will do. Anything else?”

“Not from my end.”

“You know, I looked up Hunter’s Landing on the Internet, and the place you’re staying isn’t that far from the casinos.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“So you should go. Gamble, talk to some people. You spend too much time alone.”

He thought about Meri, sleeping in the room next to his. “Not anymore.”

“Does that mean you’re seeing someone?”

“No.”

“You need to get married.”

“You need to get off me.”

Bobbi Sue sighed. “All right, but just in the short term.”

Jack hung up. He glanced at his computer, but for once he didn’t want to work. He paced the length of the spacious bedroom, ignoring the fireplace, the view and the television. Then he went downstairs to confront the woman who seemed determined to think the worst of him.

Not that he cared what she thought. But this wasn’t about her—it was about Hunter.

He found Meri in the kitchen, sitting on the counter, eating ice cream out of a pint-size container.

“Lunch?” he asked as he entered the room.

“Sort of. Not exactly high in nutrition, but I’m more interested in sugar and fat right now.”

He stared at her miniature spoon. “That’s an interesting size.”

She waved the tiny utensil. “It’s my ice-cream-eating spoon. I try to avoid using food as an emotional crutch, but sometimes ice cream is the only solution. I use this spoon because it takes longer to eat and I have a better chance of getting disgusted with myself and stopping before finishing the pint. A trick for keeping off the weight. I have a thousand of them.”

“This situation required ice cream?”

She licked the spoon. He did his best to ignore the flick of her tongue and the sigh that followed, along with the rush of unwelcome heat in his body.

“You pissed me off,” she told him.

Translation: he’d hurt her. Hunter was her brother. She wouldn’t want to think his friends had forgotten him.

He leaned against the counter as he considered what to do. His natural inclination was to walk away. Her feelings didn’t matter to him. At least they shouldn’t. But this was Meri, and he was supposed to be looking out for her. Which meant not making a bad situation worse.

Maybe a small concession was in order. “I don’t want to think about Hunter,” he admitted. “I’ve trained myself not to. But he’s there. All the time.”

She eyed him. “Why should I believe you?”

“I don’t care if you do.”

She surprised him by smiling. “Okay. I like that answer. If you’d tried to convince me, I would have known you were just placating me. But your stick-up-the-butt attitude is honest.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re excused.”

He frowned. Had she always been this irritating?

“You getting much work done?” she asked as she checked her watch. “I’m not. There’s so much going on right now and I really need to focus. But it’s tough. Being here, seducing you—it’s a full time job.”

He folded his arms over his chest. “You need to let that go.”

“The seduction part? I don’t think so. I’m making progress. You’re going on the defensive. What happened in the gym was definitely about taking charge. So that means I’m getting to you.” She held out the ice cream container. “Want some, big guy?”

She was mocking him. She was irreverent and fearless and determined. All good qualities, but not in this situation. She was right. He wanted to get control. And he could think of only one way to do that.

He moved close and took the ice cream from her. After setting it and the spoon on the counter, he cupped her face and kissed her.

He took rather than asked. He claimed her with his lips, branding her skin with his own. He leaned in, crowding her, showing her that she hadn’t thought her plan through.

She stiffened slightly and gasped in surprise. He took advantage of the moment and plunged his tongue into her mouth.

She was cool from the ice cream, cool with a hint of fire. She tasted of chocolate and something that had to be her own erotic essence. He ignored the softness of her skin, the sensual feel of her mouth and the heat that poured through him.

She pulled back slightly and gazed into his eyes. “Is that the best you can do?” she asked before she put her arms around his neck and drew him in.

She kissed him back with a need that surprised him. She opened for him and then met his tongue with darting licks of her own.

She’d parted her legs, so he slipped between her thighs. Although she was much shorter, with her sitting on the counter, he found himself nestled against her crotch.

Blood pumped, making him hard. Desire consumed him. Desire for a woman he couldn’t have. Dammit all to hell.

Then he reminded himself that his reaction was to an attractive woman. It wasn’t specific. It wasn’t about Meri. As his assistant enjoyed pointing out, he’d been solitary for a long time. Even brief sexual encounters no longer intrigued him. He’d been lost in a world of work and nothing else.

He had needs. That was all this was—a scratch for an itch.

He pulled back. “Interesting.”

She raised her eyebrows. “It was a whole lot more than interesting and you know it.”

“If it’s important for you to believe that, go ahead.”

“I don’t mind that you’re not making this easy,” she told him. “The victory will be all the sweeter.” She picked up her ice cream and put the cover back. “I’m done.”

“Sugar and fat needs met?”

“I no longer need the comfort. My bad mood is gone.”

So like a woman, he thought as he leaned against the counter. “Because I kissed you?”

She smiled and jumped to the floor, then walked to the freezer. “Because you liked it.”

He wasn’t going to argue the point.

She closed the freezer door with her hip, then looked at him. “Tell me about the women in your life.”

“Not much to tell.”

“It’s tough, isn’t it?” She leaned against the counter opposite his. For once, her eyes weren’t bright with humor or challenge. “Being who we are and trying to get involved. The money thing, I mean.”

Because they both came from money. Because they’d been raised with the idea that they had to be careful, to make sure they didn’t fall for someone who was in it for the wrong reasons.

Without wanting to, Jack remembered sitting in on a painful conversation between Hunter and Meredith. He’d tried to escape more than once, but his friend had wanted him to stick around to make sure Meri really listened.

“Guys are going to know who you are,” Hunter had told her. “You have to be smart and not just think with your heart.”

Meri had been sixteen. She’d writhed in her seat as Hunter had talked, then she’d stood and glared at him. “Who is going to want me for anything else?” she demanded. “I’m not pretty. I’ll never be pretty. I’m nothing more than a giant brain with braces and a big nose. I’m going to have to buy all my boyfriends.”

Hunter had looked at Jack with an expression that begged for help, but Jack hadn’t known what to say either. They were too young to be guiding Meri through life—what experiences did they have to pass on? Doing twins from the law school hardly counted.

“I have it easier than you do,” he said, forcing himself back to the present, not wanting to think about how he’d failed both Hunter and Meri. “The women I go out with don’t know who I am.”

“Interesting point. I don’t talk about my family, but word gets out. I’ve actually reached the point in my life where I have to have men investigated before I start dating them. It’s not fun.”

“You’re doing the right thing.” Not that she was the only one checking out her dates. He ran a check on all of them, too. For casual dates, he only bothered with a preliminary investigation, but if it looked like things were getting serious, he asked for a more involved report.

She glanced at her watch again.

“You have an appointment?” he asked.

She grinned. “I have a surprise.”

“Another one?”

“Oh, yeah. So there’s no little woman waiting in the wings?”

“I told you—I’m not the little-woman type.”

“Of course. You’re the kind of man who enjoys a challenge. Which is what I am.”

Okay, so kissing her hadn’t gotten her to back off. He needed another direction. He refused to spend the next three and a half weeks dodging Meri. All he needed was a plan. He’d never been defeated before and he wasn’t about to be defeated now.

“But I want something different from the men in my life,” she continued. “Maybe my tastes have matured, but I’m looking for someone smart and funny—but normal-smart. Not brainy. I could never marry another genius. We’d have a mutant child, for sure.”

He chuckled. “Your own version of genetic engineering?”

“Sort of. I made a list of characteristics that are important to me. I used to have a whole program I wrote one weekend, but that seemed so calculated. A list is more ordinary.”

“Not if you wrote it in binary code.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I’d never do that. C++ maybe.”

He was going to guess C++ was another computer language, but he could be wrong.

“Not that I needed a computer program to know Andrew is a great guy.”

Jack stared at her. “Andrew?”

“The man I’ve been dating for a while now. He checked out great, and things are getting serious.”

Jack didn’t remember hearing about any guy named Andrew. Not that he got personally involved unless things were heating up—which, apparently, they were. Why hadn’t he been told?

“How serious?” he asked as he heard the sound of a truck heading toward the house.

“I’m probably going to marry him,” Meri said, then ran out of the kitchen. “You hear that? They’re here!”

Marry him?

Before he could react to that, he found himself following her to the foyer and beyond that to the front of the house. A shuttle van pulled to a stop in front of the porch, and the door eased open.

“Who’s here?” he asked, but Meri wasn’t listening.

She bounced from foot to foot, then threw herself into the arms of the first person off the shuttle. He was short, skinny and wearing glasses thick enough to be portholes. Nothing about him was the least bit threatening, and Jack immediately wanted to kill him.

“You made it,” Meri said, hugging the guy again. “I’ve missed you so much.”

The guy disentangled himself. “It’s been a week, Meri. You need to get out more.”

She laughed, then turned to the next person and greeted him with exactly the same enthusiasm. Okay. So nerd guy wasn’t Andrew. Good to know.

Meri welcomed all eight visitors with exactly the same amount of enthusiasm, then she turned to Jack.