And there was only one way to find out.
CHAPTER SIX
Get him naked.
Not to check body cavities. Because . . . eww.
But for another reason.
Because she hardly knew which way was up anymore. She wanted to trust Jake, so very badly. But she didn’t know how to. She’d trusted Duke for years and was slapped in the face by him when their love went sour. She’d known Jake for less than a week. This was the man gunning for her stepdad. She had to be certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he wasn’t playing her, and the only way to be certain was to conduct a thorough check of his clothes.
But first, the Novocain of a kiss.
The second the door to her room shut, she pounced on him, kissing hard to silence all conversation, to use the same drug on him that he’d used on her last night. Closeness. Connection. Red-hot contact. It had worked wonders at turning her into a quivering one-track woman, hell-bent only on pleasure. Maybe it could do the same to Jake so he’d easily let her investigate . . . his pockets.
As she consumed his lips, her brain whirred fast and crazy with a Rubik’s Cube of possibilities.
He’d stolen the diamond while she was sleeping.
He hadn’t stolen it at all.
Both Isla and Jake were lying about the jewels.
Jake was hiding the diamonds he’d taken from Isla’s office.
In his shoe. In his wallet. In the pocket of his underwear.
Wait. Did underwear have pockets anymore? Did they ever have pockets?
What if maybe he wasn’t hiding them at all?
There were too many outcomes, and she hardly knew how to navigate this topsy-turvy maze. As she slid her tongue between Jake’s soft, delicious lips, her mind settled, and her body took the driver’s seat. Kissing him intoxicated her, too. It had from the very first night. His kisses were preludes. A hint of what might come. An appetizer inviting her to the table of all the pleasure this man could give. She hummed with desire as she explored his mouth. Her skin sizzled and her belly flipped. Then it flopped again as he groaned from her kissing. A sexy, masculine rumble because of her, and how she took the reins and led this carnal moment.
He liked it, and dammit, so did she.
It both pissed her off and ignited her. In mere seconds of their lips sealing, she was wildly aroused when she wanted to feel nothing for him. Nothing but anger. Only, she felt so much more than nothing, especially because the Rubik’s Cube of options was lining up squares in his favor as he looped his hands through her hair, then broke the kiss momentarily to whisper, “I have no idea why you’re acting so strange today, but when you kiss me like that, I kind of stop caring.” His voice was both husky and true. “I like it too much.”
Her heart slammed to the ground, then bounced back up. She gave herself a pep talk.
Do it.
Checking would be for the best. She had to know, and there was one way to find out. Finish what she’d started outside the gallery and conduct her investigation.
“I like it, too,” she said in a sexy purr, then dropped her lips to his neck, kissing a trail up his skin, savoring the clean scent of him, how he gripped her hair harder as she kissed, then nipped on his earlobe.
He groaned.
She flicked her tongue against the shell of his ear.
He grabbed her harder, crushing her body against his, his erection pressing into her.
Fuck, she wanted him.
The angel popped up on her shoulder. Trust him.
The devil appeared. Frisk him.
Before she could hesitate, she spoke in a rush. “Jake, can I blindfold you and kiss you all over?”
His green eyes twinkled. “Hell yeah.”
She darted to her suitcase, hunted for a bikini wrap that when folded over would double nicely as a blindfold, and then turned around to find he’d already shed his shorts and T-shirt. Her skin heated up at the sight of his broad, toned body, his firm muscles and tanned skin.
“Bed. Now,” she said, and he stretched out.
She climbed over him and tied the wrap over his eyes, then raked her eyes over him from head to toe. Sparks shot through her as she took him in on the bed, clad only in boxer briefs. He looked hot like that, his strong chest and sturdy arms on display and the rigid lines between his abs self-evident. Not to mention the fact that the white boxers left little to the imagination about his desire for her.
“Give me thirty seconds to put on some music and slip into something more comfortable,” she said, then grabbed her phone and called up a Jane Black song. Once the music started, she quietly picked up his shorts from the floor, snagged his wallet, and opened it, flipping through it quickly. Diamonds were small. If he had found diamonds in Isla’s office, he could have hidden them in his wallet and claimed he’d uncovered none.
But the leather fold contained only credit cards and greenbacks.
Next, she dipped her hand into the back pocket of his shorts, checking there, too, as the clock ticked. Her heart beat furiously, pounding in her ears, as he lay calmly on the bed. Happily waiting for her as she raced through his clothes.
“Tick tock, Steph. You should be about naked now or wearing the red lacy thong I’m picturing you in,” he said in a playful tone, parking his hands behind his head.
So trusting. So happy to be here.
Her shoulders tensed. “Almost there,” she said from her spot kneeling on the floor as she reached into the front pocket and wrapped her hands around a . . . jar of honey?
She took it out, and then burst into a wide smile. He had a jar of the honey she loved. That was too cute. Too adorable. And she was too confused.