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When he finished dressing, he returned to stand beside the bed, reaching out to lightly touch her chin. Even that simple touch was enough to send fresh ripples of desire all the way to her toes. “You were very precious to your family, Eva. Your safety is not something that they—or I—would ever joke about.”
Her heart, which had been pounding an urgent but steady beat ever since the phone call from American Security, suddenly fluttered. She could’ve melted right there. Could have brought him back into bed with her and let him take care of her, and screw whatever was happening outside the hotel room.
If she kept him here, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about him getting into danger on her account.
And she did worry. As much as she’d told her friends Georgie and Nelson that she wouldn’t get emotionally wrapped up in Jack Bennett, she couldn’t help it. He was the closest thing to family she had left.
She curled her fingers around his. “I don’t want you to go,” she said. She’d meant to sound sexy, seductive, but the words came out small and scared. “I mean, it’s my apartment. I should go with you.”
“That’ll accomplish nothing, Eva. I’ll sort it out. Stay here. Be safe. I’ve got this.” He threw his jacket on and tucked his cell phone into his pocket. “I’ll call you when I arrive.”
She wrapped the sheets tightly around her naked body as he left and closed the door behind him. In the silence of the strange hotel
room, everything that had happened in the past few hours slowly sunk in.
She had been so nervous for her “date” with Jack, but somewhere between giving Jack her awkward first strip tease, and clutching his hair as his mouth worked between her legs, she’d become lost in pleasure. Now, there were signs of his presence everywhere, from the whisker burn his stubble had left on her chin to the delicious spice of his aftershave still hanging in the air. He had awakened a wild, hungry part of her that had lain dormant her entire life.
She felt electrified, on edge, and desperate for more of the primal connection she’d just discovered. Combined with the unbearable quiet, the solitude of the impersonal hotel room became too much to take.
Shivering, she pulled the covers over her shoulders and dragged them from the bed, using them as a makeshift shawl as she padded to the window. She pulled back the heavy curtain in time to see Jack standing under the marquee, hailing a cab. A light rain had fallen, making the concrete shimmer in the streetlights. She’d always thought the rain made the city beautiful, but in the past few hours her view of everything had shifted.
She now saw another side of New York—a menacing, dangerous one.
Someone had been following her. And maybe that same someone had broken into her apartment.
She didn’t want to be alone. She couldn’t be. Not now. She closed the curtains and quickly began to dress.
Chapter Two
Jack
Jack checked his Rolex as the cab pulled curbside next to Eva’s apartment building in Tribeca. It was just before midnight.
He would much rather be rolling up to her place to continue their lessons in seduction¸ but he was accustomed to shifting gears quickly. It was part of what made him a shark at the negotiation table. He didn’t have as much experience using the seek-and-destroy part of himself in his personal life, but right now he was ready to tear the son of a bitch who had broken into Eva’s apartment to pieces with his bare hands.
What if Eva had been home? Alone? What would the bastard have done to her?
The thought was enough to make Jack’s jaw clench and his hands ball into fists at his sides.
Eva’s apartment boasted a 24/7 doorman, a brightly lit lobby, and an address in one of the best neighborhoods in the city. One of the safest, too—Antonio had made sure of that. That safety came with a hefty Tribeca price tag, but Antonio had spared no expense where his little sister was concerned. The day they’d closed on the apartment four years ago, he’d had a team install a top-of-the-line security system. At the time Jack had thought the cameras in every room were overkill.
But now, as he stepped onto the sidewalk to greet the policemen milling around outside the apartment building, he wondered whether Antonio’s instincts had been spot on.
“Were you the officer American Security sent to follow up on the break-in?” he asked the young policeman who was slouching against a squad car.
The baby-faced cop stood up straight and waved him off. “I’m going to have to ask you to move along, sir. This is an active crime scene. Only residents are allowed in the building right now.”
Jack’s jaw clenched. Ordinarily, the kid cop’s tough-guy act would have loosened the sharper edge of his tongue. But tonight he needed answers—fast—and there were times when honey caught more flies than vinegar. “Look. I’m Jack Bennett, Miss Fiorini’s friend. I’ve known her since she was a girl, and I was with her when she got the call that there’d been a break-in. I didn’t want her coming here until I made sure it was safe. I’m worried about her and would appreciate any information you’re able to share.”
The other man’s expression softened. “I get it. I’ve got two little sisters.”
Jack nodded, though he certainly wasn’t thinking about Eva in a sisterly fashion any more. Not after tonight.
“It’s safe,” the cop continued. “The perp got away, but we’ll need the resident to determine if anything’s missing. I’m Officer Valentine. Come on. I’ll show you what we’ve got so far.”
Valentine motioned him through the revolving doors to where the doorman, an older man with a thick gray moustache, stood in the elegant lobby, looking thoroughly spooked. “Nothing like this has ever happened here before,” he said as they approached. “Been here ten years, and we’ve never had a break-in.”
Well, that makes sense. This place is like Fort Knox. If the intruder was a junkie looking for something to sell to get his next fix, there were about a million other places in the city that would be easier to get into.
