In Sierra Leone—Jack’s back teeth ground together. He’d seen the shattered remains of the women who’d fallen into the hands of the Revolutionary Army. Death for them had been a release.
He knew what the world was like. Being armed, willing and able to defend the things he cared about, was deeply embedded in his bones, in his very DNA. And right now, Caroline topped the list of things he’d defend to the death.
“One last thing, honey.” Jack clasped her shoulders. Through the thick down he could feel her shoulder bones, delicate, fragile. Everything about her was delicate and fragile, in a world that hated beauty and delicacy. He could lose her at any time to the scumbags of the world. He had to remember that. “Do you have a safe?”
Caroline nodded, eyes big, fixed on his face. “Yes, it’s—”
“No.” He lay a long forefinger across her lips. “Don’t tell me. I don’t need to know. I want you to go check your safe to see if everything’s there that should be. Will you do that for me?”
Without another word, she disappeared upstairs, while Jack went over the living room again, more carefully this time. He still didn’t see anything missing, and he had a good visual memory.
It never failed to astonish him that most people kept their valuables in the living room or the bedroom. In his own house back in North Carolina, his wall safe had been behind the toilet.
Caroline came back down the stairs.
“Anything gone?”
“No.” She shook her head, looking troubled. “Everything is where it should be. In the bedroom, as well.” A quick glance around the living room was enough for her. She was familiar with her own space. “And nothing is missing here. There isn’t actually that much to steal. Are you sure the house was broken into?”
One picture was worth a thousand words. Jack simply took her hand and walked her to the front door. He opened it and took her hand to rub it over the shiny brass lock. “Feel that? Feel the slight scratches and abrasions?”
She nodded, finger moving gently over the brass and steel. “Maybe they were always there. How can you tell?”
“They weren’t here this morning, trust me on that. Those scratches come from lockpicks, and it would have taken the thief about a minute and a half, tops, to get in.”
“How would you know? And how come you noticed something as small as a few scratches?”
He had his own set of lockpicks in his duffel bag, though he thought it best not to mention that. She was spooked enough as it was. “We’re trained to pick locks in the Army, so I know what a picked lock looks like. And the first thing a soldier does is establish a secure perimeter and be aware of what’s inside that perimeter. I notice these things because I was trained to. Just about the first thing I noticed when I got here was that you have the flimsiest locks I’ve ever seen. A child could get through them, let alone a half-competent burglar.”
Her eyes widened, and a little color came into her cheeks. “Well, I’m sorry if my locks aren’t up to par, but it’s what I have, so deal with it.”
She was angry. Great. He loved seeing that lost, pale expression chased from her face. “Tomorrow, first thing, I’m getting a decent security system in place. Maybe a Pressley or a—”
“Whoa, Jack.” There were red flags now on her cheeks. She held up her hands in time-out sign. “I’m sorry, I realize that you’re security-conscious, but I simply can’t afford a security system, not the kind with electronic codes and alarmed windows and doors. I’m not entirely certain I could afford new locks for all the doors. So that is something that is simply going to have to wait.”
Something clenched in his chest. “I’m not expecting you to pay for it, Caroline. I’m perfectly willing to buy the system. And I could probably get a good professional discount if I use my father’s company’s name.”
“I can’t accept that.” She shook her head, her beautiful mouth set in a stubborn line. “I can’t afford to knock it off the rent, and I certainly can’t accept an expensive security system from you. So, I’m sorry, but the new security system won’t be coming anytime soon. We’ll just have to hope that the burglars don’t come back. Maybe there’s this burglar underworld, and the word has spread that there is nothing at all to steal at Greenbriars except for some mismatched silver, odd porcelain plates and my mother’s watercolors.”
Jack wished he could fast-forward to the next few weeks, or however long it took for them to become engaged, so that this nonsense about not accepting money from him could stop.
Instead, he ran the back of his forefinger along her neck, down to the delicate collarbones. She’d taken her coat off when she went upstairs to check on the safe—which was in her bedroom, he’d bet his left nut on it. Under the coat, she had a pretty turquoise V-neck sweater that turned her eyes a brilliant blue.
He watched her for a moment, running his finger under the collar of the sweater, loving the feel of her skin, like warm satin. “Do you know what I’d love to do?”
She shook her head.
He lowered his voice to a whisper as he lowered his eyes to her neck. “I would love to buy you a pearl necklace. The perfect pearl necklace. Your skin is made for pearls. I’d buy the slightly rosy-colored kind, I’m sure there’s a name for that—”
“Overtone.” She was smiling slightly.
“Pink overtone, then. I’d buy you strands of them, you’d look so beautiful, and it would give me so much pleasure. But you know what?”
Caroline shook her head again, watching his eyes.
“I’m betting that you already have a pearl necklace. Am I right?”
“Several. And very beautiful ones. They belonged to my mother.”
“Uh-huh. My point exactly. I’ll bet your father just loved buying them for your mother. You said he liked spoiling her. I can just imagine how much enjoyment he got out of his wife looking so beautiful in pearls he’d chosen for her.”
The memory of something made Caroline smile. This was working. Jack wasn’t used to convincing anyone to do something by coaxing. In the Army you gave orders, and they were obeyed. This was an entirely new field for him. He was going to have to get good at this skill, fast. Caroline had her own ideas about things, and she was no pushover.
“Well, the thing is this. Much as I’d love to buy you a pearl necklace, I know fu—damn all about the things. I’d get the wrong kind or the wrong size or the wrong number or something. Botch it up somehow. Just thinking about walking into a jewelry store makes me break out in a sweat. Pearl necklaces have not figured much in my life up to this point, and in all my training, they never came up once, so I’d be treading in very unfamiliar waters. But if there’s one thing I do know, it’s security. And you would be doing me an enormous favor in letting me set up your security system for you because it would save me going out of my freaking mind with worry that a burglar can just waltz in here, only next time he might have a knife or a gun and catch you alone and hurt you if I’m not here. So could you consider it the equivalent of a pearl necklace from a suitor? And a huge personal favor to me?”
His hand was warming her skin up, releasing that faint scent of roses that always went straight to his dick. Jack wanted nothing more than to carry her upstairs, lay her on her bed, get on top of her, get in her, just as soon as was humanly possible. But she was upset. First that fucker McCullin, then her house being broken into—he needed to get her fed and relaxed before they could fuck.
No. Before they could make love.
Wow. It was the first time he’d ever called it that in his head. It was also the first time he’d wanted a willing woman and decided to put sex off because she might not be psychologically ready.
“I hate it that someone was in my house, going through my things,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he said simply.
“And you’ll set up a system no one can get through?”
He’d set up a system not even he could get through. He nodded.