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Yelping, she turned and spit the mouthful into the sink behind her. Jace shook his head and grumbled something about being careful before scooting past her. He didn’t ask where her coffee cups were, just opened the right cupboard and pulled one down. He chose a pod—something bold and dark—and popped it into the machine. Reaching around her, he opened the fridge and pulled out her carton of milk. She never would have taken him for a milk guy.
What also surprised her was how easy he was in her kitchen, as if he’d spent lots of time there. She could probably count on one hand the number of times he’d been inside her home in the past two years. At least, with her here. It was obvious from his stint mowing her lawn the other day, and his helping himself to her kitchen, that this wasn’t a one-time occurrence.
It annoyed her, but it also sent warmth splashing through her body. Which only increased her annoyance—with herself.
His coffee fixed the way he liked, Jace turned to face her, propping his lean hips against the counter. Crossing one bare ankle over the other, he studied her over the rim of his cup, his mouth pursed, a steady stream of air gusting out across the surface of his cup.
Dropping her gaze, Quinn took another tentative sip. One burn was more than enough for today.
They stood there in her kitchen, silently drinking. The air, heavy and oppressive, pushed in on her. It tightened her shoulders and made her skin tingle and itch.
One minute stretched into three and then five. She wanted to fill the silence, but had no idea what to say. So she just kept her mouth filled with swallow after swallow. Every few seconds her eyes would stray to him, not his gaze, but the rest of him. The long pants that clung to his hips and thighs. The curl of dark black hair over his ear. His strong fingers wrapped around the curved handle of his cup. Her cup.
Finally, when she thought she couldn’t handle the tension for one second more, he broke the silence. “What are your plans for today?”
Flitting her eyes up to his, she took in the way he watched her and had to look away again. “Grocery shopping, a spin class. I’d like to run by the home-improvement store. I’ve been wanting to repaint the den for a while and the sink in the powder room has been dripping.”
“Okay, just let me grab a shower and we can go whenever you’re ready.”
Shaking her head, she said, “You don’t have to do that, Jace. It’ll be boring as hell for you.”
“It won’t, but that’s beside the point.”
“Don’t you have something more important to do?”
“Until I’m satisfied you’re not in any danger, you are my number one priority. I’m not going anywhere, Quinn, so you might as well get used to having me around.”
That was the problem. She’d been struggling against inappropriate feelings toward him for a long time. The only thing that had kept the urges in check was the infrequency of their contact...and the certainty he wasn’t interested.
Having him constantly in her personal space, sleeping in her home and drinking her coffee...
She could get used to having him around. Quite easily. And that would be bad.
Jace and his parents were important to her. She didn’t have a family of her own, not really. Her parents were gone. She and her sister weren’t close and never had been. Tabby was seven years older than she was and had been in her freshman year at college when their parents died. Quinn had been raised by her grandmother.
There were other kids of all ages and backgrounds who’d revolved through the early years of Quinn’s life. She’d always loved that her parents took in foster children, sharing their love and kindness with those who needed it most. But it had been years since she’d heard from any of those children.
She hadn’t realized just how lonely she’d become until Michael’s parents had made her part of their family. She didn’t want to lose that simply because she couldn’t control her baser urges.
A cup clattered into the sink, jolting Quinn from the dark turn of her thoughts. “I’m going to shower.” Jace was halfway across the room before his body froze. Slowly, he turned back to her, pinning her in place with those clear blue eyes. He studied her for several seconds, his head cocked to the side. “Do not leave the house without me.”
The thought hadn’t even occurred to her, which made her a little angry with herself. But now that he’d mentioned it....
As if he could read the thoughts flitting across her mind, his voice dropped down into a low rumble. “I’m serious, Quinn. If I have to chase after you neither of us is going to be happy about it.”
Sighing, she nodded. Jace hesitated for a few more seconds, his gaze scouring her until he was apparently satisfied with what he saw. Quinn stood in the kitchen after he’d left, her body electrified and restless and unable to cope. But the sound of water rushing through the pipes galvanized her.
The last thing she needed was to stand here with her mouth open as visions of water flowing over Jace’s naked body filled her mind.
Getting as far away from that end of the house as possible, she darted into the den. Popping open the drapes so sunlight could flood inside, she noticed several of the neighborhood boys in the yard between her house and the neighbor’s, with a baseball and a bat.
A small smile curved her lips. The boys next door were nice, always yelling a hello whenever they saw her outside.
She’d just turned away, planning on filling the next few minutes with a brilliant con artist and his FBI handler on a recorded episode of White Collar when a loud crash startled her.
The scream that erupted from her throat was pure reaction. Glass shattered, tinkling to the floor in a shower of shards. A baseball bounced twice on laminate and then rolled. Loud, apologetic and panicked voices sounded outside her window. “Ms. Keller, we’re so sorry! We’ll pay for the window, promise.”
On the other side of the window a handful of wide-eyed faces appeared. They were obviously alarmed by what had happened. But after the initial kick of apprehension and stutter of her heart, Quinn settled back. There were worse things in the world than a broken window.
“No worries, boys. It was an accident.”
Walking around the broken glass—she’d take care of that after she retrieved a pair of shoes—she picked up the baseball from where it had rolled against the leg of her sofa. Popping it up and snatching it out of the air, she sent the cluster of faces a sly smile and a wink.
4
JACE WAS STANDING beneath the stone-cold stream of water, trying to get a handle on his libido, when a loud crash and high-pitched scream ripped through him as surely as any bullet could have. He knew the sound of terror when he heard it.
Chills that had nothing to do with the water rippled across his skin.
Quinn. He never should have left her alone.
Instinct and training kicked in. Slamming off the shower, Jace wrapped a towel haphazardly around his waist and bolted for the door.
Stopping only long enough to grab the gun he’d left in the bag in his room, he crept through the house. His senses strained for some sign or sound. Nothing. There was nothing. What the hell had happened?
It was probably less than ninety seconds before he’d swept the rest of the empty house and found himself in the last room, the den. And what he saw there left his skin clammy and made bile spin up the back of his throat.
The window was shattered, glass littered all across the floor. And the room was empty. Quinn wasn’t anywhere in the house.
Had the bastard broken in and snatched her?
A flash of something off to the side of the house caught his eye. Dashing out the front door, Jace followed it.
The moment he saw her relief washed through him, stealing the strength from his muscles. Although that didn’t stop his dash across the yard toward her.
He still had no idea which direction the threat was coming from and until he did...
“Quinn!” he called out, the single word harsh with warning.
She spun on her heels, eyes widening when she saw him barreling straight for her. Her eyes darted to the gun he pointed at the ground—he wouldn’t raise it until he knew the target.
She shook her head, lifting her hands up and waving for him to stop. He didn’t. Instead, he tackled her, wrapping his arms around her waist and rolling in midair so his body would take the brunt of the impact.
But he didn’t stop when they hit the ground. That would have left her exposed. A soft gust of air swept across his cheek as her body collided with his. Jace kept rolling until she was pinned beneath him, his body becoming a shield.
Bent arms pressed by her sides, her palms flattened against his naked chest. He took a few precious seconds to scan her face and make sure she was unharmed before returning his focus to assessing their surroundings.
And that’s when he noticed the five boys standing several feet away, gaping at them.
One of them, the oldest, held a baseball in his hand. Another had a bat. The others all held mitts.
An unpleasant thought twisted through his brain.
A frown pulling at the space between his brows, he growled, “What’s going on?”
All of the boys shuffled backward a few steps.
“Jace, stop it,” Quinn admonished. “The boys accidentally sent their baseball through my window. It was an accident, hardly worthy of a drawn firearm.”
His gaze returned to Quinn. Her eyes stared up at him, exasperation and humor making those golden flecks sparkle.
Her body, tensed after his sudden assault, relaxed. She sank into the thick grass, unconsciously taking his full weight. Her fingers flexed against his naked skin. Her hips shifted. And suddenly he was hard as stone.
There was no way she could miss his reaction.
Slowly, the humor in her eyes faded, replaced with something much more dangerous...and tempting.
Her lush lips parted. Her fingers curled into his skin, as if to pull him closer. Jace’s gaze fell to her mouth. Soft and pink. Full and enticing. He wanted to taste her. Wanted to know if she was as sweet as she smelled.
Had wanted it for a very long time.
His neck curved. Her chin tilted, moving to give him room. Her breath stuttered. They were so tightly pressed together, he could feel the hitch in her chest more than hear it.
Her eyes darkened.
But before he could actually claim her mouth, a small, hesitant voice interrupted.
“Uh, mister, you dropped your towel.”
* * *
OH, DEAR LORD ABOVE.
Quinn’s head turned slowly, her gaze traveling across the breadth of Jace’s shoulders, down his tight biceps, still glistening with tiny droplets of water, to his large hand clenched around a gun.
Okay, so that definitely wasn’t the hard ridge of his gun between them.
She sucked in a harsh breath, her body lighting up like the New York skyline on New Year’s Eve.
“Uh, mister, you dropped your towel.”
The high-pitched little boy voice had Quinn’s gaze dragging back across the hard body pressed tight to hers.
She was human, after all.
It was her only excuse when her body curled up to sneak a peak of Jace’s naked backside.
Dear, sweet heaven.
Her hands dug into the soft grass and tore it up by the roots. It was either that or grab a handful of him. As it was, she couldn’t quite stop herself from squirming beneath him.
Jace hissed, almost like she’d hurt him. Panic surged through her. Had he injured himself diving to the ground?
That thought had her fists unlocking. They were so tightly pressed together, she couldn’t see anything. But, oh, could she feel. Her fingers found his sides, running up over his ribs, down his hips and over the tight ridge of ab muscles, searching for some sign of damage. By touch alone, she explored him, pausing slightly when her fingertips brushed across the raised proof of the scars he’d tried to cover up.
Another groan rumbled up through his chest. The vibration of it shot straight through her, but she was too deep in worry to dwell on her reaction.
She searched his pale blue gaze, looking for any sign of pain. And it was there, lurking deep in the back, an echo that sent adrenaline surging through her body.
“What did you do? Where does it hurt?”
Quinn wrapped her leg around his, and with a surge of her hips tried to flip him over onto his back so she could examine the rest of him. Unfortunately, the move didn’t get her much of anything.
Jace’s hips surged against her, driving her deeper into the ground and pinning her in place.
His long, lean body stretched over hers, reminding her that she could feel every hard inch of him. And there were plenty of them to feel.
“Really? Did you really just ask me that, Quinn?”
Heat flushed her skin, embarrassment and arousal.
“That’s what I thought. Any idea where my towel went?”
As if by magic, a beige pile of terrycloth plopped down onto the ground right beside them.
Jace looked up, a grim smile curving his lips. “Yeah. Thanks.”
“Sure,” a voice said, clearly full of barely suppressed laughter. From a few yards away several snickers joined the moment. A battered pair of sneakers paused for a second before turning and retreating fast, followed by four more. They were blessedly alone, although Quinn wasn’t entirely certain that was a good thing.
Rolling, somehow Jace managed to snag the towel, cover the strategic parts and end up on his back beside her on her lawn.
One arm plopped down over his face, shielding his eyes and expression from Quinn. Although she could see his mouth—his beautiful, kissable, tempting mouth—the corners crooked up in a smirk that hadn’t fully formed.
Pulling her legs beneath her, Quinn sat up cross-legged next to him. Her knee brushed his hip. She should probably pull it away, but she didn’t want to. She liked touching him. Liked the way any contact made her body buzz with an energy she hadn’t felt in a very, very long time.
His chest rose and fell on even, measured breaths. And while the towel was draped across the middle of his body, it did nothing to hide the valleys and planes of his abs. Or the massive erection tenting the soft cotton. She’d seen him half naked last night, his shorts covering pretty much exactly the same amount of skin as the towel.
So why was she reacting like this was more?
“So, um, thanks for trying to save me?”
He rolled his head sideways, a single clear blue eye peeking out from behind his arm. “Sure. Any rabid baseballs, murderous footballs or wayward Frisbees attack and I’m your man.”
Quinn reached for him, running her fingers down the slope of his arm in a gesture meant to soothe his wounded pride.
“It was sweet. Honestly. I know I haven’t exactly been making this easy, but it means a lot that you’re willing to put yourself in harm’s way to protect me.”
She had no idea what she’d said, but one moment amusement was lighting his eyes, the next his mouth tightened into a grim line and a cold shield dropped in place to cut her off from seeing anything else.
