Under Wraps (15 page)

He unwound her shawl from her shoulders and tossed it on the couch. Then, he gathered her hair on one side of
her head and tucked it in front of her shoulder, exposing the laces on the back of her dress.

“You think he'll thank you? I think it was me that put a finer point on it than ‘Get a big dog.' And if that was a pep talk, by the way, I sure hope you never try to cheer me up.”

Spinning her around, Rick halted her so that her back faced him. He slid one finger under the knot that held the ties together.

“I've got an entirely different approach to take when I want to make you feel better.” His breath warmed the back of her neck as he leaned close. “Would you care for a demonstration?”

Knees melting beneath her, Lianna couldn't wait.

 

M
ARNIE DIDN'T REGRET
flying out of Saratoga late that afternoon.

She'd sprung for a flight to get her away from the man who'd broken her heart as fast as possible. Jake had protested, arguing that he could return her to Miami so she could spend the holidays with her family. But he couldn't keep her where she didn't want to be.

And she damn well didn't want to travel anywhere with a man who didn't recognize her right to choose what kind of life she led and who she spent her time with. She couldn't bear one more round of his refrain about her safety.

Did he think she was made of glass?

Now, strapping on a pair of ice skates in the moonlight a day later, Marnie gazed up at her hotel in northern Vermont. More of a ski lodge than a hotel, the Three
Chimneys Inn sat on a quiet mountain side with access to cross-country skiing, sledding and a big pond for skating. She'd rented a one-room bungalow outside the main building, unable to return home to all the happy members of her family seated around the holiday table in pairs while she sat alone.

Again.

Inhaling the clean, cold air, she stood on her skates and hoped she remembered how to do this. As it turned out, she needed to lose herself now far more than when she'd been under suspicion for a felony and on the run from the man who framed her. A broken heart trumped all else when it came to reasons for booking a fantasy escape.

She needed this time to figure out how to go on without Jake.

Pushing off on one toe, she leaned forward on the other foot, feeling the blade cut into the bumpy, ungroomed ice. No one else was using the pond tonight, so she had it all to herself. Then again, most people were at home celebrating the holidays with family. Loved ones.

Banishing the thoughts of Jake for the umpteenth time in the past hour, Marnie launched into an upbeat Christmas carol, hoping to sing herself happy.

“It's great to hear you sing.”

The deep, familiar voice cut right through her chorus about holly boughs and candles on the tree.

“Jake.” She spun to see him standing in the moonlight at the pond's edge and her heart raced as if it were in
triple overtime, even though she willed herself to be calm. Composed. “How did you find me?”

Her breath fogged the air in front of her. She was so not ready to revisit the heartache she'd experienced at his hands earlier this week.

“Don't worry.” He remained at the edge of the ice, one boot hiked up on the log where she'd sat to lace up her skates. “It didn't involve any hidden cameras or anything. I just called your mom.”

Oh. She could just imagine how that conversation went. Her mother had probably bombarded him with nosy questions before assuming he'd be present for Christmas dinner. She was like that with every boyfriend and male acquaintance Marnie had from the time she was thirteen.

“You could have just called me.” She tried not to pay attention to the fast trip of her heartbeat. He'd made an impression on her the first time they'd met when he'd built the cabinet for her display at Lose Yourself. And she'd been drawn to him ever since, even when that wasn't wise. Now was no different.

Forcing herself into a small spin on her skates, she hoped the activity would serve as a distraction so she didn't gape at him like a starving woman drooling over Christmas dinner.

“I wasn't sure what kind of reception I'd get and I didn't want to risk you telling me to go take a flying leap or anything like that.”

Moonlight spilled over him, his breath huffing white and rising quickly in the cold.

She didn't argue since she wasn't sure what she would have said to him. She still didn't know.

“So why did you want to find me?” Slowing her spin, she took some pleasure in discovering the skating lessons she'd taken as a teen were still stored somewhere in her muscle memory.

Besides, thinking about skating seemed more prudent than letting her imagination run away when it came to Jake.

“For one thing, I wanted to return your laptop.” He shoved his hands in his pocket, the snow and the moon surrounding him in white and silhouetting his big, powerful body. “I removed the spyware and cleaned it up for you. It's at the front desk of your hotel.”

Stepping out onto the ice, he stalked toward her. She couldn't spin or skate now. All she could do was watch him come closer. And hope that he had far better reasons for trolling around the dark Vermont hillside than to deliver electronics.

“That was thoughtful of you.” She kept her cool outwardly, her voice even despite being so unsteady inside. But the closer he came, the more certain she was that he could see how much she missed him. Wanted him.

When only a few inches separated them, he stopped. She was almost eye to eye with him while she wore her skates. His body blocked the wind, sheltering her in a way that made her warmer, yet gave her a shiver, too.

“I figured it was the least I could do to make it up to you for pulling the freak-out show yesterday.” His voice, all low and growly and private, sent a jolt of pleasure
through her, reminding her of other conversations that had been for her ears only.

She liked the idea that this intense, focused man could have a side he saved just for her. Not that she was getting her hopes up, damn it.

“I'm not sure what you mean.” And she wanted to be one hundred percent clear. No more assuming the best because of her optimistic nature.

“Marnie, I'm sorry I went caveman on you yesterday. I kept waiting for you to go into shock after what you'd been through, but I think it was me who went a little crazy afterward.” His expression was so serious. Tiny lines fanned around the outside of his eyes as he frowned. “I had no business dictating that we shouldn't be together because I got scared by this case. Rick pretty much called me a candy ass to my face for acting like that.”

“Really?” She tried to picture Jake standing still long enough to take that kind of criticism, and couldn't.

“Yeah.” He shook his head, an odd smile lifting one side of his mouth. “He's not such a bad guy. And he was right.”

Marnie's skates nearly slid right out from under her.

Apparently, Jake saw her surprise as he reached to steady her, but he kept right on talking.

“I've really put relationships on the back burner for a long time. I had a girlfriend mess around on me while I was on a tour overseas and it sort of cured the itch to have any kind of lasting commitment for a while. I just
kept up the happy bachelor thing and devoted the best of myself to the job. Until you.”

The night was so still and silent except for his voice. Smoke from some nearby cabins drifted on the breeze. All around them, the fresh fallen snow twinkled in the moonlight. And Marnie had the feeling she would always remember every tiny impression of this moment when Jake had cared about her enough to share something of himself. To open his heart, if only a little.

“I'm sorry some wretched woman cheated on you.” She couldn't imagine stabbing a guy in the back like that while he was half a world away, and she knew firsthand what it felt like to be deceived.

“She wasn't The One.” Jake took her hands in his, sliding his fingers inside her mittens to touch her skin. Her heart fluttered like a teenager's. “Apparently she was a bump in the road on the way to something better. And I'm not going to be too blind to see the best thing that ever happened to me when she's standing right before my eyes.”

Marnie tipped her forehead to his, a profound sense of peace and rightness wrapping around her.

“Jake Brennan, you brought a much better gift than a laptop.” She couldn't ask for anything nicer for Christmas than to have him here with her. Tunneling her arms inside his jacket, she wrapped herself around him. “There's more.”

“You're going to stay with me through Christmas?” she guessed, already picturing the fun she'd have unwrapping that particular present.

“I'm very on board with that, if you'll have me.” He
bent to kiss the top of her head, the rough edge of his unshaven jaw catching in her hair. “But I also had an early Christmas present to give you.”

He reached inside a jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope that he handed to her.

“A present?”

“You'd better check it out and see if you like it.”

Glancing at his face, she tried to guess and came up blank. Opening the envelope, she saw…

“MapQuest directions?” A route had been highlighted from Vermont back to Miami, with stops in between. “Philadelphia? Savannah?”

“I felt bad you didn't get to have much of a vacation so I talked to Vincent Galway, and he helped me figure out some of the Premiere Properties resorts you liked best. I figured you haven't gotten to travel much since you started your own business and while this isn't exactly Paris and Rome—”

Happy sparks showered through her as bright as the Northern Lights. She all but tackled him, squeezing him and her gift tight.

“You gave me a road trip.” She'd been envious of the ones she'd booked for her clients, needing a getaway herself. “It's the best gift.”

“Vincent says you can have your job back any time you want it, but at the least, he wanted to give you some comp rooms to apologize for terminating your position with Premiere.”

“I'm really happy running my own business.” She looked up into his eyes, feeling as if she were still spinning—no, floating—even though her skates remained
in place. “But I'll gladly take the comp rooms as long as you're sharing them with me.”

Jake nodded as he took the papers back and shoved them back in his pocket.

“I'm part of the deal.” He wound an arm around her waist, his hand curving possessively over her hip. “And I'd be glad to take you back to your cabin and show you what an asset I'm going to be during this vacation of yours.”

A light, swirling snow started to fall around them, the flakes as fat and glittery as the kind that came in a snow globe.

“Mmm,” was all Marnie could manage, happiness and pleasure making her dizzy with wanting him.

“I want you in my life, Marnie. Thank you for giving me another chance.”

“Thank you for coming for me.” She kissed his cheek, so glad to have the promise of this night with him. This week. A future. “And thanks for making this the best Christmas ever.”

Slanting his lips over hers, he met her mouth in a kiss that promised many, many more.

Nine days later

“S
MILE FOR THE CAMERA
.” Marnie stalked her quarry barefoot across the carpet in the hotel room they shared at a historic property on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. They'd spent Christmas together in Vermont before starting their road trip south, straying from the course when the mood suited them.

Now, on New Year's Eve, they'd decided to return to their hotel room, ditching the small champagne party in the dining club downstairs before the clock struck the zero hour. Shortly before midnight, with the sounds of the dance band wafting right through the closed balcony doors, Marnie sashayed around the room in her emerald-green satin cocktail dress, counting her blessings for the year.

Starting with the man in the middle of her zoom lens.

“Not more video.” Jake shook his head as he unwound a black silk tie that he'd paired with one of the dinner jackets he'd bought during their stay at the Marquis. With the undone tie looped around his neck, he went for
the buttons on his crisp white dress shirt. “Are you still trying to get payback for that hidden camera of mine? I don't think you can possibly capture as much footage of me as I've got of you.”

His wicked grin teased her, but she deliberately panned lower on his strong, muscular bod to take in his exposed chest. The taut abs she could start to see as his fingers kept up the work on the buttons.

Would she ever get enough of this man?

They'd spent every moment together since the night he'd followed her to the Vermont skating pond, but she still got breathless when he got close to her. Not just because of the phenomenal heat that sparked between them. She just flat out liked to be with him. To hear about how he'd caught various bad guys. To understand how committed he was to his work. To be a part of his world. Yeah, she had it bad for him. And she couldn't be happier about that.

Especially now that two more witnesses had come forward to make statements about Alec's various schemes. According to Jake, they already had enough evidence to put him away for at least twenty-five years.

And that hadn't been all the good news they'd gotten on their winding road trip south. Lianna had called her two days ago, asking her to book a trip to the California coast for her to see the sights and take in a few neighborhoods for prospective house hunting. Marnie had been only too happy to oblige, spending an afternoon researching fun places for her and Rick to stay.

Right now, she was glad to think about her own future, however. It seemed to be turning out just right with this hot stud of a man in her viewfinder.

“I'm dispensing with the boring bits,” she explained “and getting only the juicy parts on tape. So my video archives are going to be way hotter than yours.”

Jake stripped off the shirt and her mouth went dry.

“All flash and no substance?” He went for his belt buckle and she had the feeling her gasp of anticipation would be well documented in the audio. “Where's your artistic integrity as a filmmaker?”

Downstairs, she could hear the sudden blare of horns from the dance band and a chorus of shouts. Setting down the video camera, she checked the clock and saw the time.

“It's a new year.” Her eyes went to his without the filter of the lens between them.

“To new beginnings.” He spoke the words like a toast, but instead of lifting a glass, he stepped toward her. Clamping his hands around her waist, his fingers warmed her skin right through the silky green satin of her dress.

He bent close, the heat of his body kicking up her pulse. She licked her lips in anticipation. Nudged the strap of her slim sheath toward the edge of her shoulder and down. Off.

“Cheers to that,” she agreed, her heart and her body so very ready for him.

As she shimmied her way out of her dress, Marnie was glad she'd turned off the camera for what she knew would come next. She had the feeling it would be a New Year's neither of them would ever forget.