LITMIR.BIZ

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all these years. Not after the way he’d left her.

      Jake sighed. He took two pills, chased them down with a glass of water, and told himself to stop thinking about the pain. He was alive. Three of his men weren’t.

      He turned his thoughts away from the memory of a mission gone bad and tried to focus on the bodies under his parking lot. Who had put them there and why? He walked back downstairs slowly, knowing it was going to be a very long afternoon.

      His guess proved correct. Jake was left with little time to think about Amy or anything else once the police descended on the Perrywrinkle and his customers.

      AMY WATCHED JAKE move about the room and tried not to be too obvious. She ate her food with mechanical precision, barely listening to her mother and daughter. He still moved with an economy of motion, but the fluidity wasn’t the same. There was a stiffness about him now. It was especially noticeable when he’d bent to retrieve a napkin that had slipped from an older woman’s lap.

      Had he been injured?

      Had he hurt himself when he’d tackled her in an effort to protect them?

      Did she care? she chastised herself mentally.

      Unfortunately, that answer was yes. She shouldn’t care now that she’d done what she’d set out to do. She’d shown Jake his gorgeous daughter and he’d barely even noticed. Yet she still couldn’t take her eyes from him.

      And that made her worse than a fool.

      “Ladies, how was your lunch?”

      Amy jumped, startled to find him beside her. He’d always done that, she remembered. He moved so silently that he was there before a person realized.

      “Glorious,” her mother responded with enthusiasm. “The food here is marvelous.”

      Amy nearly jumped again as her mother actually kicked her under the table.

      “Yes. The meal was good,” she admitted without looking up. In truth, she couldn’t have said what she’d eaten. Her thoughts had never once been on the food.

      “I liked the rolls best,” Kelsey put in. “And the coconut pie.”

      Jake smiled. A genuine smile instead of the formal and distant ones she’d watched him use with others. Pain tugged at Amy’s heart. Her daughter had that same smile.

      “I’m glad to hear it.”

      “The entertainment was pretty interesting, as well,” Susan Thomas put in, eyeing the police officers who were still talking with a couple in the corner.

      “Yes, well, I’m afraid I didn’t have much control over that part of your lunch, but I’m happy that everything else met with your satisfaction.”

      He looked at Amy as he spoke and her cheeks immediately warmed under his penetrating stare. She’d forgotten that about him. How he could focus so intently on a person they felt as though he were peering into their very soul. She shook her head at the thought.

      “Something wrong, Amy?”

      Just hearing her name on his lips took her back to hot summer nights and wildly fabulous sex. What was wrong with her hormones for crying out loud?

      “I’d like to pay the check.”

      “Lunch is on me. And I apologize for the incident outside. We don’t generally have runaway trucks in the parking lot.”

      “Just bodies, hmm?”

      He stared at her and her pulses leaped erratically.

      “I’ll be happy to have your dresses dry-cleaned if they were damaged from your tumble.”

      “That isn’t necessary. They’ll wash.”

      “Glad to hear it. It would be a shame to ruin them.”

      Answering heat swept through her at his penetrating look, but she knew she couldn’t respond to the sensual pull he still exerted.

      “Whenever you’re ready to leave, let me know and I’ll drive you home.”

      “We can walk,” she stated firmly.

      His eyes chastised her. He glanced at her mother. Amy knew she was blushing again but she couldn’t stop. Her mother’s gaze flicked from one to the other of them as if she were watching a tennis match. Even Kelsey looked interested.

      “I said I’ll drive you,” he said softly.

      “That would be lovely, dear,” Susan said decisively. “So nice of you to offer. I feel so full I’m actually ready for a nap.”

      Jake turned the full force of his smile on her mother. “Then I’ve done my job.”

      “Quite well, I’d say. Ignore my daughter. She’s being temperamental today for some reason.”

      “I hadn’t noticed,” he lied smoothly.

      Susan laughed as if delighted. “Are you ready, Amy?”

      “The police—”

      “Have assured me that they are finished questioning you for now,” Jake said smoothly. “Shall we go?”

      “I knew I should have brought my car,” Amy muttered beneath her breath.

      “I’m sure Mr. Collins is a capable driver. Aren’t you, dear?”

      “So I’ve been told.” He stared into Amy’s eyes as if demanding that she remember.

      “WHY DON’T YOU let me drive this time?” she purred, running her fingers across his lightly furred chest.

      “Are you suggesting I didn’t get you where you wanted to go?” he teased as he toyed with her breast.

      “Oh, you’re a capable driver, but now I want to show you what I can do.”

      AMY COULD FEEL searing heat ignite her face as the memory of their erotic lovemaking that day filled her head. She refused to look at him again.

      Her parents’ home was only down the street, yet it seemed to take forever to drive the short distance. She knew darn well her mother had conspired to put her in the passenger seat up front where she could all but feel Jake’s nearness.

      Her mother was matchmaking! That was all she needed. Her mother wouldn’t be so quick off the mark if she knew who Jake really was. While Amy had never told her parents the identity of Kelsey’s father, could her mother have guessed?

      It would be surprising, actually, if her eagle-eyed mother didn’t pick up on the likeness between Kelsey and Jake. Kelsey’s coloring, her dark eyes and square little jaw—fortunately softened in her little-girl features—were so much like her father’s that Amy had been certain Susan would see the obvious right away.

      Or was Amy reading too much into things because she knew.

      “’Bye, Mr. Collins. Thanks for lunch,” Kelsey called, jumping from the car. “I’m going to call Sarah and tell her about the bodies!”

      The resiliency of youth. Amy stepped from the car to help her mother, but the older woman was already out and moving spryly after her granddaughter.

      “Yes, thank you, Mr. Collins. It was a most interesting afternoon,” Susan agreed. “Are you coming, dear?”

      “In a moment, Mom. You and Kelsey go ahead.” Amy wasn’t anxious to face the third degree she knew was coming as soon as she stepped inside the familiar house. She turned to Jake as soon as her mother and daughter were out of earshot.

      “What are you doing here, Jake?”

      “Running a restaurant,” he offered mildly.

      “That isn’t what I mean and you know it.”

      His gaze darkened, running over her with sensual knowledge of exactly what was beneath her clothing. “You haven’t

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