No, she wanted Jeremy in her life.

And with a little patience from him she could be creative enough to make this work, but he'd have to agree to keep their relationship quiet for a while. At least until she could get settled here and figure out how to introduce him to her family.

She'd planned to explain her situation over dinner tonight, but now she was reconsidering after Jeremy's about-face in the gym. Guys had the strangest way of thinking. What had happened since this morning for him now to want to be only friends friends all of a sudden? all of a sudden?

Was he backpedaling, worried she was going to cling?

CeCe shook her head and yawned. With Vinny out of the way, she had twelve hours to show Jeremy that he was more than a neighbor to her, but she'd have to rethink her original plan of laying it on the line with him. If she approached tonight wrong, Jeremy might back away big time at the first sign of anything that sounded too serious.

Opening cabinets, she started shoving cans onto shelves, getting more ticked off by the minute.

At everyone, including herself.

Her brothers meant well and had been her rocks of support since her mother died when she was in high school, but the men in her family expressed that love by smothering her.

Her fault for letting them.

CeCe finished shuffling everything into place then raced into the bathroom to shower, shave her legs again, and groom any other wild hair on her body. She attempted to tame her wavy locks as they dried and finally gave up.

Jeremy hadn't seemed to notice her uncivilized morning hair.

But then Jeremy hadn't even noticed the new outfit she'd picked up today just to do her stretches at the gym. He'd been more interested in that d.a.m.n cooler.

When the familiar sound of a vehicle next door reached her, CeCe ran over to peek out between the slats of her blinds. Night had taken over the city. Jeremy drove his sport utility into his garage, then the lights went dark. She felt like she was sixteen again, watching for the cute guy in the neighborhood to walk by her yard.

But back in high school she'd been warned against acting on a primal urge to go out and flirt with a boy.

Tonight she intended to act on a primal urge that went way beyond flirting with Jeremy. She didn't have experience in holding the attention of a man like him, but she had one chance to pull out all the stops and find out if she could.

Spinning around, she strode over to her antique bureau that had one drawer filled with fabulous lingerie she'd been buying for a night like tonight. CeCe glanced at the pink robe lying across her bed.

That had friends friends written all over it. written all over it.

Digging through the drawer, she shook her head at the pastel colors and paused when her fingers touched lacy red and black selections she'd purchased from an online store. Lifting two sinfully s.e.xy pieces into view, she chewed on her lip.

If Jeremy saw her in this and still wanted to be just friends she had no chance of keeping him.

[image]

JEREMY SHOWERED, THEN pulled on a pair of jeans and shoved the wallet and cash he'd tossed on the bathroom vanity into his pockets. He'd finger combed his damp hair back off his face and strolled into the bedroom when a light blinked twice over the doorframe to the bathroom. Someone had tripped the silent alarm for his backyard, which meant he'd jumped the chain-link fence since his gate was locked. pulled on a pair of jeans and shoved the wallet and cash he'd tossed on the bathroom vanity into his pockets. He'd finger combed his damp hair back off his face and strolled into the bedroom when a light blinked twice over the doorframe to the bathroom. Someone had tripped the silent alarm for his backyard, which meant he'd jumped the chain-link fence since his gate was locked.

It could be an animal but he doubted it since there was nothing to draw a dog or cat to his yard. In his line of work he took any intruder seriously.

Yanking on a shirt, he palmed his weapon off the nightstand. He opened a drawer where he found a pair of night-vision binoculars and moved silently through the dark house.

Years of living on the edge had taught him to leave the lights off anytime he didn't absolutely need them on.

He checked his security panel hidden in a kitchen cabinet, which showed additional sensors being tripped. Someone was moving through his backyard. Jeremy shuffled over and barely lifted the curtain aside where he could scan the pitch-black area filled with just two trees and patio furniture.

A stocky figure that might top out near six feet and moved through the shadows in a decidedly male way crossed his yard and climbed the fence into CeCe's yard.

Lucky for this guy neither he nor CeCe had dogs.

But the intruder's luck ran out at that point.

Jeremy checked for any additional threats before easing out the sliding gla.s.s door that opened to his patio. He vaulted over the fence into CeCe's yard and crouched all the way to where he found the sliding gla.s.s door open just enough to let a person pa.s.s through.

She'd probably left it unlocked for him.

He entered silently and paused in the kitchen. A deep voice rumbled low in the living room.

Much as he wanted to race in there and slam a head, Jeremy couldn't make a mistake that would put CeCe in further danger.

A rough male voice said, "You're Cecelia Caprice. Pretended to be a statue at the festival this weekend, right?"

"Y-yes, but I don't understand," CeCe answered as Jeremy crept forward. "What do you want from me?" Her voice went up an octave every couple words. She was closing in on hysteria.

Jeremy covered the last fifteen feet to the short hallway leading to the living room and paused again, peeking around the corner.

The bulked-up intruder held a weapon to CeCe's head. "Calm down. If you scream, I swear I'll blow your brains out."

Rage sheared through Jeremy like a honed razor. He lifted his weapon and stepped into the room.

Five.

The intruder stood to the side of CeCe, who sat shivering on the couch. Wearing a red silk kimono might not be the warmest clothing, but she was shaking from terror of having a weapon shoved against her head.

If this was a mission for BAD, Jeremy would take the clear shot he had. There were plenty of reasons not to, but the only one that mattered was the danger of the weapon at CeCe's head discharging.

Jeremy pulled a penny from his pants pocket and tossed it down the hallway where the coin bounced against a baseboard.

"What was that?" the intruder said, eyes turning toward the sound.

"I don't know," CeCe whispered. "I live alone."

Indecision played through the perp's hardened face until he backed a step away from CeCe, pulling his weapon off her head.

Just what Jeremy had hoped for. He let the guy take a second step toward the hallway that brought him closer to Jeremy, who rushed him.

The perp's eyes flashed surprise. He hesitated in raising his gun hand just a second, long enough for Jeremy to reach him in time to knock the weapon away.

But that left Jeremy open for the left hook that felt like a sledgehammer when it clipped his jaw. He took the hit then came back with a right cross of his own, using his gun to slam the guy in his temple.

The intruder fell back against her front door and dropped down between the door and the end of her couch.

"Jeremy." CeCe had barely said his name as if she couldn't breathe for hyperventilating.

"Are you okay?" He gave her a quick glance while he bent to pick up the intruder's Glock and shoved it inside the waistband of his jeans. She wasn't screaming and her eyes hadn't glazed over with shock yet in spite of being terrified.

CeCe nodded from where she sat frozen. Her eyes zeroed in on the weapon in Jeremy's hand and widened. If her face lost any more color he worried she might pa.s.s out.

Taking a look to ensure the guy was still out cold, Jeremy stepped over to where CeCe sat frozen in place on her sofa, hands gripping the cushion on each side of her legs.

He leaned down and put his palm against her face. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, fighting to hold back tears.

He kissed her, just enough to give her some comfort. When Jeremy lifted his head he was heartened to see her shock fading. Giving her a task would take her mind off the fear she'd just endured. "Have you got duct tape?"

She blinked, clearing her gaze. "Yes."

"Walk around the far end of the coffee table and go get it."

The minute she exited the room Jeremy went back to the guy, whose fingers were moving. He'd come to in a minute. The intruder packed an easy two hundred and twenty-five pounds of corded muscle into black pants and a tight-fitting T-shirt. Thick ruddy browncolored hair an inch long covered his blockhead and deep lines carved into his ugly mug. A scar made up of X X's ran from elbow to wrist on his left arm. Prison cuts?

The guy shook his head and opened eyes that narrowed with hate.

In that instant, Jeremy saw something familiar in his face, but he couldn't place him. "Who are you?"

"Someone you shouldn't be p.i.s.sing off," the thug answered.

"Hard not to do when that's my specialty."

The guy's arrogant gaze flattened. "You're f.u.c.king with the wrong person."

"I could say the same thing." Jeremy listened for CeCe who was digging through drawers in the kitchen, followed by slamming a drawer and cursing. His gaze stayed on this guy, who was too calm for being caught breaking and entering. "How do you know CeCe?"

Dull gray eyes stared then he shrugged. "Picture was in the paper."

"What do you want with her?"

"What do you think?" The perp grinned.

Jeremy drew on all his discipline not to shove that smile down to the guy's boots.

"Wait a minute," the intruder whispered. His eyebrows lowered over soulless eyes that pondered on something. "I know you."

s.h.i.t. He hated to be right some days. "No you don't."

When CeCe slammed a drawer this time it was followed by her footsteps rushing back to the living room.

The guy's face shifted from trying to place Jeremy to problem solved. "I do do know you." know you."

Jeremy would have liked another minute to find out how this guy knew him, but he didn't want that conversation in front of CeCe or the police. Just before she entered the living room, Jeremy slammed his weapon against the perp's head hard enough to knock him out for a long while.

"What happened?" CeCe hurried over to him.

"He lunged at me. When I get him rolled over, tape his hands," Jeremy instructed her.

When he had the perp on his face and hands behind his back, Jeremy nodded. CeCe tore off a strip of tape she slipped under the man's wrists and wrapped the length around and around with shaking hands.

"Tape his ankles too." Jeremy waited until she finished to send her to the kitchen. "Call the police and tell them someone broke into your home, but that he's contained."

She hesitated for a second, then rushed away and called. After turning the guy around and dragging him over to prop against the couch so they could get the front door open, Jeremy stepped into the kitchen.

CeCe hung up her wall phone. "They're on the way."

Jeremy walked over to her but kept his body where he could watch the intruder for movement. "Have any idea what he wants?"

She shook her head. "He asked me if I was a statue at the park Sunday."

That d.a.m.n photo in the newspaper. "Someone in your office must have given out your address."

"They're not supposed to and why would he go to that trouble? I mean, I don't drive a fancy car or live in an expensive home and-" She paused in the middle of arguing. Her thought process ended with the realization of why a stalker would track down her home address. What color she'd regained flushed from her face again. "Do you think he came here to... attack me."

"I don't know." The guy didn't hit Jeremy as a stalker or petty thief. He was too professional feeling.

Jeremy ignored the disconcerting sensation that something was odd here and pulled CeCe into his arms before her knees folded. "It's okay. He's going to jail as soon as the police get here."

She hooked her arms around his neck and held on as if he was her only lifeline.

Jeremy hugged her and rubbed her back to calm her, but he had to do something with his weapon before the police arrived. He eased her over to sit at the kitchen table then crossed to the cabinets where he slipped his weapon onto a high shelf inside. During missions for BAD, he carried every conceivable weapon known to man, but when in civilian mode Jeremy was subject to the laws of this country that stated a prior convicted felon could not carry a weapon. Since BAD technically did not exist, he couldn't claim his felonies were part of his job and committed while in the service of his country.

He turned back to CeCe to find her gazing intently between him and the cabinet. "What are you doing?"

Jeremy considered what he could tell her on the way back to where she sat. He dropped down in front of her. "The gun belongs to a friend of mine who asked me to keep it for him while he was out of the country. I grabbed it when I saw the guy climb into your yard. I don't have a permit to carry. No point in complicating things."

She was still too pale and the skin on her arm beneath his fingers had chilled. Part of the problem was the skimpy outfit she had on.

"Sit tight." He got a lap blanket out of the living room, checked their prisoner, who hadn't made a sound, and came back to the kitchen. Wrapping the soft blanket around her shoulders, he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"I'll get you some water." On the way to the sink, Jeremy glanced at the perp again. The more he studied her unwanted visitor, the more he thought he knew him. Not an encouraging sign considering what Jeremy did for BAD.

He'd like to go through the intruder's pockets to look for anything that would explain why he had broken into CeCe's house, but CeCe might wonder why he'd do that.

Plus, if this guy was some sort of professional he wouldn't be carrying identification.

Jeremy had just handed the water to CeCe when flashing lights pierced the sheer drapes covering her living room windows. Uniformed officers showed up at the front door by the time Jeremy reached it to let them in. He handed the Glock to the police, gave both officers a quick rundown of what happened, and told them he had defense training and got the jump on the guy.

The police replaced the duct tape with handcuffs and carried their perp out to the cruiser.

This guy's lack of ability to speak saved Jeremy from finding out if CeCe would have backed up his lie about having a weapon. He hated to put her in that position, but the only other option would have been to explain why he had a criminal record.