Rules of Engagement (6 page)

It was the not the first time in their short acquaintance that she’d seen him like this.

She kept silent, knowing better than to question him. She followed his gaze, trying to spot what he was sensing, and couldn’t. Apparently neither could he.

“What is it?” she asked after he blinked away the stranger who unnerved her.

He shook his head. “Nothing.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m just getting paranoid.”

“You don’t strike me as the type,” she remarked.

He shrugged. “Too much time with only myself for company.” He allowed himself a half-smile. “Good thing Ella sent you.”

Jake shrugged off his day pack, swung it in front of him and unzipped the main compartment. He took out the thick roast beef sandwiches they’d prepared earlier and handed one to her. He set out the extra sandwiches, the two-liter water bottle and a plastic container of diced cantaloupe and honeydew melon, and joined her on the boulder.

“They look so little down there,” she said, eyes on the town. She transferred her half-eaten sandwich to her left hand, held up the right and squinted through the inch of space between her thumb and forefinger. “I can crush buildings and not just heads from up here.”

She slid him a look from the corner of her eye and caught his perplexed expression.

“The Headcrusher from
Kids in the Hall
,” she explained.

He lifted a questioning brow.

She turned her head to face him. “It was a Canadian sketch comedy show on television during the eighties and nineties. They used to have a sketch where Mr. Tyzik would sit around and crush the heads of people he didn’t like. You must’ve heard of it.” She brought her thumb and forefinger together and, in a high-pitched, nasal voice with a hint of an Eastern European accent, enthusiastically mimicked, “‘I’m crushing your head! I’m crushing your head!’”

“No,” he said evenly. “Perhaps you can do it again and maybe it’ll jog my memory.”

Her eyes narrowed then she shook her head, ashamed at her own gullibility. “That was good,” she conceded. “I actually thought you were born under a rock for a second.”

He chuckled. “I still can’t believe you’re a supposedly mature woman.”

“Mature doesn’t mean my television habits are limited to the news networks.” She shrugged and, around a mouthful of food, said, “I have the entire
Futurama
series on DVD. I like things that make me laugh.” Her smile faded from her face and tone. “I get enough of the other in my day job.”

He silently regarded her long enough to make her uncomfortable.

She swallowed the last bite of her sandwich. “What? Do I have something stuck between my teeth?”

Jake shook his head. “I’ve never met a woman like you.”

“A twenty-eight-year-old virgin?”

A corner of his mouth twitched. “That too.”

She wrinkled her nose and reached for another sandwich. “Like I said, three older brothers. They’re worse than my father.” Her tone became disgruntled. “And it’s not like they followed the rules they enforced on me. And if you smirk one more time, I’m going to throw this sandwich at you. At this distance, I’m not going to miss.”

“You’re not going to waste perfectly good food.”

“No,” she sighed and took a bite of bread, roast beef, tomato, pickle, Dijon mustard and horseradish sauce, loving the mix of flavors on her tongue. Jake was constantly plying her with food and she’d yet to turn anything down. In between the hiking, rock climbing and, well, sex, she needed the extra energy. And frankly, the last week and a half had been a nice change from her standard fare of bitter coffee, bran muffins and frozen dinners.

“Why law enforcement?” he queried.

“I used to read a lot of my brothers’ comic books. When I was ten, I decided I wanted to be a superhero.”

He nearly choked on his food.

She shoved the water bottle at him and slapped him on the back, hard, before continuing. “Later on, I realized that being a superhero required superpowers or, in Batman’s and Green Arrow’s cases, bucket loads of money, so after I graduated from North Carolina State, I signed up with the academy. I don’t have a cape and tights but, hey, nothing beats burnt coffee from the station house and I
have
dodged a bullet or two.”

He twisted the cap back on the water bottle and set it down. “If you feel the need to dress up in a cape and tights, I’ll be more than happy to run into town and get you a costume. It’s close enough to Halloween and I’ve always had a thing for Wonder Woman. She wears a cape for formal occasions.”

It was her turn to nearly choke. Jake was grinning as he handed her the water bottle and slapped her on the back. Katarzyna managed to wash her food down, all the while avoiding looking directly at him. She put down the water bottle as Jake reached for a juicy cube of cantaloupe. Her eyes locked on the back of his hand and the long, thin white line bisecting it. Her appetite, along with her easy mood, fled as her stomach clenched.

Jake shared his body with her and nothing more. When they talked, he did all the questioning and she did all the answering. Other women would be flattered at the interest, but it felt damned one-sided to her.

Frustration took root and grew inside her, even though she told herself she’d likely never see him again after she got down this mountain. The thought made her edgy and irritable, and she was suddenly eager to start their trek back to the cabin, where she could continue making up for twenty-eight years of abstinence and forget all about the invisible boundary line Jake had drawn between them.

With brisk movements, Katarzyna wiped her fingers with a wet towelette and started packing up.

Jake grabbed her wrist, stopping her. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

The frustration twisted, swelled until it pushed against her lungs. How could he not understand, damn it? Curtly, she replied, “Nothing.”

His lips thinned. “Don’t give me that bullshit answer. Don’t tell me nothing’s wrong when you look like you want to do damage to someone.”

His eyes told her he knew that the someone was him. She jerked her wrist free. “Fine. Something
is
wrong. But it’s nothing you can—or are willing to—fix, so let’s just drop it.”

“You came up with the no-strings arrangement.”

“But not those damned rules,” she fired back. “And especially not the last one.”

Anger flared in his eyes. “I took three bullets in the chest and had to spend four months in a hospital, drifting in and out of consciousness because I was living on saline and morphine fed through an IV. It’s not something I care to relive.”

Her own anger faded and she turned her head away to stare unseeingly at the view she’d admired earlier. She had no right to pry into his life. Their relationship was purely physical and strictly short term.

In a small, tired voice, she apologized and added, “I have to leave in four days. I don’t want to spend them fighting with you.”

* * * * *

In considerably less time than it took them to reach the boulder, Katarzyna found herself back inside the cabin, her spine flattened against the front door and her legs wrapped around Jake’s hips as he drove into her again and again, hard enough to make her squeeze her eyes shut and alternate between whimpers and gasps for more.

There was an urgency to their coupling that hadn’t been there before. She’d almost had to run to keep up with him once the cabin had come into view. Before the door had fully closed, he’d dropped everything and shoved her roughly against it with his ready body. He’d stripped them of the minimum amount of clothing—her shoes, pants and panties, his pants and boxer briefs.

As she neared climax, the arms encircling his neck tightened and her cries increased in volume. Jake maintained his fast and hard pace, his cock hitting against the entrance to her womb with each thrust, each thrust making her body shudder. It was almost too much. The intense heat of his body engulfing her, the strong, wet suction of his mouth where her neck met her shoulder, the callused fingers digging into her ass cheeks, the almost violent hammering of his hips between her thighs, the sensation of his shaft burning in and out of her clutching channel.

She shouted his name when she peaked, her inner walls rippling along the cock buried in her depths, bright lights bursting behind her eyelids.

When she came to, the floor was a solid presence underneath her back and Jake’s cock was still a hard presence in her body. Her lashes fluttered open. His body was strained above hers, heated eyes staring down at her with a feral light that stirred fresh desire in her, making her inner muscles contract. A groan escaped between his gritted teeth.

“Why didn’t you come?” she asked a little breathlessly.

The hands holding her hips off the ground and keeping her body sealed to his became bruising. Jake relaxed his rigid jaw long enough to speak, his voice low and harsh and strained. “I want to see your eyes.”

Something inside her twisted, making her breathing hitch. Then he was moving, short, fierce strokes that made her reach for any part of him that she could touch. She found his wrists and clawed her way up to his forearms. She ached to have his body cover hers, to push heavily into hers, but he wouldn’t oblige. Her mouth fell open and female sounds of need filled the room as she crossed her ankles against the small of his back and futilely tried to force him to her will.

Jake ground his hips into her repeatedly, his body like steel beneath the heated skin. His eyes bored into hers throughout it all, making it unbearably intimate, but he wouldn’t let her turn away. Her eyes remained locked with his as each thrust rippled through her body, as each sound escaped her throat.

His movements became wild as he approached his peak, his skin stretched very tightly over the bones of his blood-darkened face. Her own pinnacle was near, nearer than his, and she cried out when she reached it, her body arching with the brilliant pleasure that exploded over her.

And she cried out again when Jake withdrew from her body and erupted onto the hollow of her tummy. The inexplicable sense of loss dulled the bliss and when he finally collapsed on top of her, she let her arms lay limply by her sides.

* * * * *

The small, meticulously maintained buildings in town warded off the late afternoon shadows with bright fluorescent lights, showcasing the ghoulishly fun Halloween decorations that abounded.

Jake flexed his fingers on the steering wheel of the 4Runner as he scanned the area for an available parking spot, not really expecting anything since it looked like everything within a three-block radius was occupied. He told himself he was glad Katarzyna had decided not to join him on the run to replenish their diminishing supplies of prophylactics and food. He wasn’t planning on being more than an hour anyway. He didn’t need to purchase much. He didn’t know when in the last few days he’d made the decision, but he planned on leaving the area shortly after her departure.

In front of the pharmacy, the rear lights of a domestic coupe came on and Jake stopped behind it, flicking on his signal. The coupe pulled away and he parallel parked the 4Runner. He got out of the SUV and strode into the store, the scowl furrowing his brow clearing his path.

He didn’t want to dwell on Katarzyna departing and taking with her the easygoing manner and sense of humor and unselfconscious beauty that made him constantly want to touch her, any part of her. Her words during their morning excursion had sounded so final. Then again, in her mind, it was final. She’d been humiliated when her fiancé had left her at the altar. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to do something to boost her battered ego. He was the rebound guy without even the pretense of anything more. She’d been tired of being a virgin and his damned cousin had sent her to him.

Katarzyna saw him as a convenience, along the same lines as a fucking vibrator, he thought darkly. Other women had done the same. More often than not, he’d enjoyed the experiences. What man wouldn’t want sex without the trappings of a so-called meaningful relationship?

Apparently, in Katarzyna’s case,
he
didn’t and that irritated him.

Jake made his purchase and dropped off the paper bag containing the box of condoms in the 4Runner. His next stop was the grocery store across the street. He glanced in both directions, saw a white sedan coming from down the street and waited for it to pass.

As he jogged across the street, Jake lifted a hand to the back of his neck and rubbed away the sudden itch. Inside the store, he surreptitiously glanced behind him at the scene through the glass door and windows. Nothing pricked his attention. Then again, this was a tourist town and, frankly, he’d been a recluse since day one, so he wouldn’t recognize all the locals.

Even though he made good time in the grocery store since it was small and the shopping list in his head was brief, the sky was dark when he emerged back onto the street. He left the store with two plastic bags in his left hand and car keys in the right. He crossed the street and when the back of his neck itched again he didn’t scratch it. It was the same feeling he’d had earlier in the morning before he and Katarzyna had eaten their lunch while overlooking the town from high up in the mountains. This time, without Katarzyna by his side, he could do something about the instincts that told him he was getting more attention than he wanted.