His Child

“Well?” she demanded.

Jake realized she was still waiting for an answer. Somehow, he’d forgotten the question. “Well what?”

She pushed out a frustrated breath. “Do I look like I could earn a living with this body?”

Maybe not earn a living, but she could do a fair job of stirring him up. Best to keep that to himself. It’d been a long time since he’d felt a physical attraction for a woman. Any woman. He wasn’t about to let his libido stir him in her direction.

She shook her head. “Don’t bother answering. I know what I look like, especially now. Trust me, you wouldn’t look much better if you’d been through what I have.” She gave a tired, cynical laugh. “You actually thought I was a hooker. What a joke. I don’t even like sex, and I haven’t been with a man in years.”

It didn’t seem a subject he wanted to explore. With her, anyway. He liked sex. And missed having it. She reminded him of that.

“Besides,” she continued, “my job and lifestyle have nothing to do with what went on at that warehouse.”

Maybe. But he wasn’t about to discount it yet. “So you’re sticking to the story that this kidnapping really happened?”

She squeezed her hands into fists, groaned in frustration and stormed out of the room. Jake followed her because he didn’t want her to try to escape again. He was still looking for answers, and she was his best bet. Maybe his only bet.

He caught her wrist and whirled her around to face him. Not the best idea he’d ever had. It caused a major problem. Because of the way he turned her, Jessie really faced him. Right up close. Barely inches away. And her warm, rapid breath hit against his throat.

Jake took in her scent, then. Not the smell of the cheap motel room, or even odors from the sweltering Texas heat outside. Her scent. A mingle of everything that was female. And something else. Something deeper, that he thought he might recognize but didn’t want to.

Great. He was obviously letting this fast-breathing, skinny liar get to him. He couldn’t possibly recognize her scent because there was nothing about it to recognize. Nothing. He didn’t know her, and she only knew him in the confines of her warped imagination.

Still, he felt the uncomfortable shiver go down his spine. It seemed a primitive signal that tried to override his common sense. Well, Jake had news for primitive signals—nothing overrode his common sense.

Nothing.

“How long are you going to hang around here and harass me?” Jessie demanded. She looked resolute enough. Her back was stiff, her chin up. Her eyes were focused and narrowed. But then he heard her swallow. She gulped. As if all of this closeness had some kind of weird effect on her, too.

Jake shook his head to clear it. If there was some kind of odd feeling between them, he didn’t want to explore it. Not with this woman. “I’ll hang around and harass you, as you call it, until I get the truth.”

“I’ve told you the truth, but you’ve chosen not to believe it. Well, you know what? That’s fine, as long as you get out of here and leave me alone. I think I’d like to have a nervous breakdown now and I can’t do that with you calling me a liar every few minutes.”

“Your nervous breakdown will have to wait.” Jake glanced at the blue circle in the vial again, and then at her. He had some things to work out and there was only one place to start. With her. “Come on. I think I know of a way we can settle all of this right now.” He caught her by the arm, but she shook off his grip just as quickly.

“What do you mean by come on? Do you honestly think I’d go anywhere with you?”

“I don’t think you have a choice. I can still call the cops, remember?”

She threw up her hands. “Then, why don’t you? Go ahead. I want you to do it. Since I don’t have a phone, that means you’ll have to go elsewhere to make that call, and elsewhere is exactly where I want you to be.”

“I will be elsewhere. Soon. All I want is to get some facts straight, and we can do that with a visit to Cryogen Labs. If I remember correctly, it’s open until eight. We’ll have plenty of time to get there before they close.”

“And just what would that accomplish?”

“They can tell you to your lying face that my vials were destroyed four months ago.”

Again, she gave him one of those gritty looks. “And? Why would I believe them, when I saw proof that one existed?”

Jake tried to put a choke hold on what was left of his self-control. Somehow, he had to get her to confess that she’d lied, and yelling at her didn’t seem to work. Nor did intimidation. Actually, so far nothing had worked.

“Look, this visit isn’t just for me,” he explained, forcing himself to calm down. “It could give you some peace of mind, too.”

Her hands went to her hips. “How, pray tell?”

“If you really believe this asinine theory of kidnapping and insemination, then it stands to reason that someone at Cryogen was in on this. Only a handful of people work there. You could see if you recognize them.”

“I didn’t see their faces. They wore surgical masks.”

Of course. What else had he expected her to say? “Maybe you could recognize their voices?”

She rearranged her expression, apparently giving that some thought. “Maybe.” But then she shook her head. “I can’t go walking into Cryogen Labs. Someone wants to kill me, remember? It could be the people who work there.”

“Oh, yes. That.” He didn’t intend to let her get away that easily, not when he was this close to the truth. “Well, I can’t imagine anyone trying to kill you with a witness around, and I make one heck of a witness. Don’t worry. Nothing bad will happen while you’re with me.”

JESSIE DIDN’T HAVE a good feeling about this little trip at all, and Jake McClendon’s assurance was probably worth a thimble full of spit. Nothing bad will happen while you’re with me.

Yeah, right.

Easy for him to say. Nobody wanted to kill him. Well, except for her. And that was only in a figurative sense.

“You’re not about to throw up, are you?” he asked.

It was the first thing Jake had said since he forced her into his sleek silver luxury car. This was probably his idea of chitchat. Fine. Her idea of answering him was to continue to look out the window as he drove down St. Mary’s Street.

“Because you look like you’re about to throw up,” he added.

This wasn’t a conversation Jessie wanted to have. Her stomach was queasy enough as it was, without discussing the potential outcome of queasiness. “Will you leave me alone? If and when I have to throw up, you’ll be the first to know. Well, maybe the second. What? Are you afraid I’ll ruin the carpet in your overpriced, foreign car?”

“No. I’m more concerned about that look on your face. When’s the last time you had something to eat?”

It took Jessie several moments to gather her breath so she could answer him. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, I’m getting some food in you.”

She frowned at the concern she saw when she glanced at him. “What’s with you? One minute you threaten to call the cops, and the next minute you want to feed me? Make up your mind, McClendon. All this flip-flopping is making me dizzy.”

“Feeding you has nothing to do with whether or not I believe you’re a con artist. Right now, I’m thinking about that baby you’re carrying.”

Jessie felt as if he’d punched her. She didn’t want him to think about the baby. Well, not beyond thinking about how it fit into the general scheme of things, she didn’t. She certainly didn’t want him concerned about it.

“What I had in mind was going through a drive-thru to get you a soft drink or something,” he added. “It might settle your stomach.”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me or my stomach.”

“I wasn’t worrying.” But he turned into the parking lot of a fast-food place and stopped in front of the huge menu board. “What do you want to eat?”

She fired him an annoyed glance. “Nothing.”