The Keeper

“No.” And he wished their curious, master hacker would leave that well enough alone. Everyone was entitled to a few secrets and, for whatever reason, Payne got the impression that the one Jack was trying to keep was as painful as it was significant.

Charlie digging around in something her brother had decided was private wasn’t going to endear her to him if he found out. Of course, Jack probably knew Charlie well enough to know that she couldn’t resist a mystery and considered very little privileged information sacred. He almost grinned.

It was part of the reason they’d hired her, after all.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Jamie chimed in. “He can hear. Why would he need to know how to read lips?”

Payne shrugged. “I’m sure he has his reasons.”

Jamie took another pull from his drink and settled a hip against the pool table. “I just hope that Mariette doesn’t make things too difficult for him. We’re helping her, for heaven’s sake.” He shook his head. “Why is being grateful a concept women struggle with?”

Payne felt his lips twist. “She didn’t ask for our help.”

Jamie blinked. “That’s my point exactly. She didn’t have to ask.”

“I don’t think it’s the help that she objects to, per se,” Guy remarked, his lips sliding into a smile. “It’s the us not leaving her a choice that’s got her back up.”

“Charlie said we could have handled it better,” Jamie said. He paused thoughtfully and grimaced. “Actually, what she really said is that we were all a bunch of high-handed, knuckle-dragging idiots with the tact of a herd of stampeding elephants. Or something like that.”

Payne chuckled. That sounded about right. And he’d never met a woman who liked being told what to do. He frowned thoughtfully.

Mariette certainly wasn’t going to be the exception there.

He hoped Jack realized that sooner rather than later.

2

MARIETTE LEVINE WAS IN the process of pulling a red-velvet cupcake from the display case when she heard the bell over the door jingle and saw a pair of impossibly long, jeans-clad legs come into view. They sidled forward in a walk that was so blatantly sexy and loose hipped that she momentarily forgot what she was doing.

A flash of pure sexual heat instantly blazed through her, the sensation so unexpected and shocking she felt her eyes round and her breath catch.

Instead of standing up—which would have been the logical thing to do—for reasons that escaped her, Mariette dropped into a deeper crouch so that she could get a better look at the rest of him. She was not hiding, Mariette told herself. She had no reason to hide, even if she would admit to being curiously … alarmed.

How singularly odd.

She had no reason to be alarmed, either, and yet something about the stranger—whose face she hadn’t even seen yet—triggered an imminent sense of danger. Not of the axe-murderer variety, but something else … something much more personal. Her racing heart stupidly skipped a beat and her mouth went dry.

Intrigued, her gaze drifted up over his crotch—it had to, dammit, to get to the rest of him—and took a more thorough inventory. He wore an oatmeal-colored cable-knit sweater—oh, how she loved a cable-knit sweater on a man—and a leather bomber jacket that had seen better days. His hands were stuffed into the pockets, his broad shoulders still a bit hunched beneath the cold. He was impossibly … big. Not apish or fat, but tall and lean hipped and muscled in all the right places.

And if his architecture was magnificent, it was nothing compared to the perfect harmony of his face.

Sweet heaven …

High cheekbones, intriguing hollows, an especially angular, squared-off jaw. His nose was perfectly proportioned and straight, his mouth a little wide and over full. Sleek brows winged over a pair of heavy-lidded, sleepy-looking light eyes—either green or blue, she couldn’t tell from this distance, though instinct told her blue.

His hair was a pale golden-blond, parted to the side, almost all one length and hung to just above his collar. He exuded confidence, fearlessness and moved with a casual deliberateness that suggested he was a man who was well aware of his own strength and ability. He didn’t merely inhabit a space—he owned it.

And she wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. Several of her patrons had stopped to look at him—mouths hanging open, forks suspended in midair—and a quick look to her right revealed that her helper, Livvie, had gone stock-still.

“Wow,” she heard Livvie breathe, her eyes rounded in wonder. “You’re tall. Like the corn man, but not green.”

Charlie Martin Weatherford, her assigned daytime bodyguard working under the guise of helping out, exited the kitchen and her step momentarily faltered, then a brilliant smile bloomed over her mouth. “‘Bout time you got here,” she said to the mystery man with a good-natured snort of impatience. “You get lost, big brother?”

Big brother? Mariette felt her eyes widen and the original irrational panic that had sent her pulse racing only a minute before was minimal to the arrhythmia that had set in now. This was Charlie’s brother? This air-breathing Greek god in a bomber jacket was the man who was going to be spending the night with her until this ignorant dairy thief was caught?

Oh, no. No, no, no …

She didn’t know why oh-no, but she knew it all the same. Could feel some sort of impending doom with every particle of her being.

She’d been right to be alarmed.

It was self-preservation in its purest form. He was disaster with a tight-assed swagger and she knew herself too well to think he’d be anything other than irresistible. Why couldn’t he have been the aging-detective type her too-vivid imagination had conjured up? She peered up at him again and resisted the urge to whimper. No paunch, jowls or receding hairline in sight.

Just six and a half feet of pure masculine temptation.

Livvie looked down at her and smiled. “Look at him, Mariette,” she said in a stage whisper, her small, almond-shaped blue eyes alight with wonder. “There’s a giant in the shop.”

Following Livvie’s gaze Charlie looked down at her, as well, and her lips twitched with knowing humor, as though she knew exactly why Mariette was hiding.

“He’s not a giant, Livvie,” Charlie told her, slinging an arm around the younger girl. “He’s just a very tall man.”

She looked at Mariette, arched a questioning brow and mouthed, “Corn man?”

Very reluctantly, Mariette rose, mentally braced herself and turned to meet Charlie’s brother. She could hear her heart thundering in her ears and her mouth had yet to recover any of its lost moisture. A breathless sort of anticipation gripped her as she looked up.

She’d been right, she discovered—his eyes were blue. And not just any shade of blue. French blue.

Her favorite, naturally.

Though she was utterly certain the earth hadn’t moved, Mariette felt it all the same. The soles of her feet practically vibrated from the imaginary vibration. The entire room, with the exception of the space he occupied, seemed to shimmy and shake. Her lungs went on temporary strike and a hot flush rushed over her skin, as though she’d been hit with an invisible blowtorch from one end of her body to the other. Her toes actually curled in her shoes.

Remarkable.

At twenty-seven, Mariette had met many good-looking men and knew enough about sexual attraction to recognize it. But this was unmistakably different. It wasn’t a dawning awareness of an attractive man.

This was a bare-knuckle sucker punch of lust—purely visceral—and undeniably the most potent reaction she’d ever had to a man. It was the sort of attraction that was rhapsodized in lyric and verse, secured the human race, rendered reason and logic useless, made one stupid.

It was the sort that could ruin a person.

But not her, dammit. Geez Lord, hadn’t she just learned her lesson? What had Nathanial been if not a warning? Aside from a cheating, dishonest little bastard, anyway? To think that she’d been seriously considering marrying him.

Just like all the other men she’d misjudged—and, lamentably, there’d been many—on the surface Nathaniel had seemed like a perfect catch. He was a successful architect working for a local, prestigious firm. He’d stopped by her shop for three solid months, asking her out every single time he came through the door until she said yes. She’d been flattered and she’d liked the fact that he hadn’t been a quitter, that he’d been persistent. She’d thought that, in him, she’d finally found the one. A real, stand-up guy who genuinely loved her the same way that her mother always had—unconditionally.

In reality he just hadn’t been used to anyone telling him no. Come to find out she hadn’t been the only person he’d been pursuing relentlessly—there’d been several others.

And when she’d caught him getting blown by the plant-watering girl—whose dirty feet still haunted her—at his office, she’d been shocked, humiliated, angry and hurt. The pain hadn’t come just from the betrayal, which had been devastating enough—it had come from not being able to trust her own judgment. With previous guys she’d had an inkling of disquiet, an intuitive niggle of doubt that she’d ultimately ignored. Smooth-talking, greasy Nathaniel had slipped completely under her radar. And he’d had a crooked dick, too, Mariette thought. If nothing else, that should have clued her in.

Note to self: Never trust a man with a crooked dick.

To complicate matters, despite her telling him to go play in traffic, he still hadn’t learned to accept no for an answer and continued to drop by in the slower hours and try to convince her to take him back. She mentally snorted.

As if.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. She might not always get things right, but she was a firm believer in education by experience … and that was one she didn’t want to repeat.

Mariette steeled herself against her newest battle of temptation. “Are you in any way related to the Jolly Green Giant, Mr. Martin?” Mariette asked him, determined to get control of herself. He was only a man, after all. A mouthwatering, bone-melting, sigh-inducing, lady-bits-quivering specimen of one, yes.

But still just a man. And those were supposed to be off-limits, at least until she figured out just what it was exactly she wanted in one and how to recognize it.

He chewed the inside of his cheek as if to hide a smile. “Not that I’m aware of, no.”

“Sorry, Livvie,” Mariette told her with a wince. “He’s not a giant.”

Livvie looked unconvinced, but beamed up at him regardless. “It’s all right,” she said, smiling shyly. “I like him anyway.”

Seemingly charmed, he extended his hand to her. “I’m Jack,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Livvie giggled delightedly and fingered the Hello Kitty necklace around her throat. “You’re nice.” She leaned over to Mariette and whispered loudly in her ear—loud was Livvie’s only volume—”He’s a gold.”

Jack’s expression became puzzled, but he didn’t question it. Livvie said she saw people in colors and was forever telling Mariette which color various people were. She even kept a small color wheel in her apron pocket so that she could easily locate the right shade. Mariette, she’d said, was a lavender. Charlie, a fuchsia. If memory served, Jack was her first gold. Interesting …

Mariette wasn’t surprised that Livvie could so clearly see auras. She was as pure of heart as it was possible to be and Mariette liked to think that the gift had been given to her as a means of protection, a way to recognize the good from the bad, and had even seen the girl retreat away from those whose “color” wasn’t right.

Would that her mother had had the same sort of gift.

At any rate, Jack Martin had passed her “Livvie test” and that said something about him. You could tell a lot about a person by the way they reacted to someone different from themselves and Livvie was about as different from Jack Martin as it was possible to be. She was small and round-faced with the short fingers and lower IQ that marked her as a person with Down syndrome.

The majority of Mariette’s customers treated Livvie with the sort of care and respect someone with the purest heart deserved—children, in particular, were drawn to her—and anyone who didn’t treat her well wasn’t anyone who was welcome in her shop.

Born to a mother with Down’s who’d been taken advantage of by a male caregiver, Mariette had a unique connection to the condition and had been employing workers with Down’s since she first opened her doors four years ago.

If she’d learned anything from her mother it had been that everyone—no matter how different—wanted to be needed, to be useful, to have a bit of independence. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t miss her and not a day that went by that she didn’t want to hurt the father who’d abused her trusting spirit.

Bastard.

He’d served eighteen months for what he’d done to her mother and then promptly fled the state. Mariette kept tabs on him, though, and directed every new employer to his sex-offender status. She inwardly grinned. He never kept a job for very long. He struggled and, though it might be small of her, she thought it was fitting. He deserved that and a lot worse if you asked her.

The idea that his evil blood actually ran in her veins was something she’d struggled with for years, at times even making her physically ill. But her mother’s was there, too, and Mariette liked to think that her mom’s especially good blood had somehow canceled out that of her father’s. Weird? Yes. But she’d never been destined for normal.

Normal was boring.

Her gaze drifted fondly over her dear helper and she smiled. Livvie had been with her for several months now and was doing remarkably well. She loved manning the case and adored sweeping. She helped with the birthday parties and refilled drinks and every tip that went into the jar was hers to keep. Which was just as well since the bulk of her check went to fund her Hello Kitty obsession. Her most recent purchase was the watch that encircled her wrist.

“Can I get you something?” Mariette asked Jack, gesturing to the display case.

He hesitated.

“He has a fondness for carrot cake,” Charlie interjected slyly.

Mariette shot him a droll look and selected the cupcake in question. It had been her aunt’s recipe—and was one of her favorites, as well. Oh, hell. Who was she kidding? Everything in this shop was her favorite, otherwise she didn’t take the time to make or stock it. Food was a passionate business and if she couldn’t get excited about it—if it didn’t make her palate sing—then she didn’t bother. Better to have fewer phenomenal items on her menu than dozens of mediocre ones.

Also something she’d learned from her Aunt Marianne, who’d not only helped raise her, but had taught her to bake, as well. Some of her fondest memories were in the kitchen with her aunt and her mom, cracking eggs, stirring batter, the scent of vanilla in the air.

She popped the dessert onto a little antique plate along with a linen napkin and handed it to him. Seconds later Livvie had put a glass of tea in his hand. She’d added two lemons and a cherry, which told Mariette just how much Livvie thought of him. She only put cherries in the drinks of her favorite people. He nodded approvingly at her and shot her a wink, making her giggle with pleasure once more.

His blue gaze shifted to Mariette and that direct regard made her more than a little light-headed. “Is there somewhere we can talk?” he asked, lifting a golden brow. “I’ve got a few questions.”

Mariette took a bracing breath and prepared herself for imminent humiliation. She couldn’t imagine anything more mortifying than telling this man about her butter problems.

MARIETTE LEVINE WAS NOT at all what he’d expected, Jack thought broodingly as he followed her back to the kitchen. Actually, he hadn’t really given any thought to what she might be like, so that wasn’t precisely true. But—his gaze drifted over her petite curvy frame, lingering on her especially ripe heart-shaped ass—this woman wouldn’t have been it.

In the first place, Mariette sounded like an old-fashioned name, so he’d imagined a more mature woman. Oh, hell, who was he kidding? He’d thought she’d be old. Which was ridiculous, really. Not all bakeries were owned by plump grandmas in floral aprons, though for reasons that escaped him that was the image that had leapt immediately to mind.

He estimated this particular baker to be in her mid- to late-twenties. In the second place … Well, there wasn’t really a second place, though logic told him there should have been. And a third and a fourth and a fifth, for that matter. Furthermore, he felt as though he should have been warned, but couldn’t come up with a logical reason for that, either.

What would they have said? Oh, by the way, Mariette’s young and hot with the most unusual gray eyes you’ll ever see? That long mink-colored hair will incite the urge to wrap it around your fist and drag her up against you? And her mouth … Jack swallowed thickly. A much fuller lower lip, a distinct bow in the upper and a perpetual tilt at the corner that suggested she was always enjoying a private joke. It was sinfully sensual nestled between her pert little nose and small pointy chin.

She wasn’t merely pretty or beautiful—though those adjectives would apply, as well—but there was something more there. Something much more substantial and compelling, and the bizarre tightening in his chest that had occurred when her gaze had met his had been nothing short of terrifying.

Jack wasn’t accustomed to being afraid of anything other than failure, so discovering that a woman could incite the feeling was a bit unsettling.

Honestly, when she’d risen up from behind that counter he couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d been hit between the eyes with a two-by-four. He’d damned-near staggered.

From a single look.

Like a tsunami running headlong into a hurricane.

If he had any brains at all he’d turn around and leave, Jack thought. He’d walk right back up the block to Ranger Security and tell them that they needed to put someone else on this particular case, to give him another one. But short of a natural disaster metaphor, how in the hell could he explain his reasoning?

How could he tell them that she made his gut clench and his dick hard? That intuition told him he was headed into uncharted emotional and sexual territory and, weak as it might sound, he wasn’t altogether certain he’d be able to control himself? That something about her scared the hell out of him? A girl?

How galling.

He couldn’t tell them that, dammit. He needed this job, had to make it work. He couldn’t bail on the first damned assignment.

And as much as he was compelled to flee, there was an opposite force equally as strong that was drawing him toward her, intriguing him, transfixing him, and between the two he was stuck, immobile and powerless.

Another punch of fear landed in his gut.

Mariette gestured toward a small table, indicating a seat and she took the one opposite. A couple of women worked at a large stainless-steel table drizzling icing over pastries and the scent of yeast and sugar hung in the air, reminding him of Christmastime at home, when his mother made her famous cinnamon rolls. Every surface gleamed beneath the large, overhead lights. An old wooden ladder outfitted with metal hooks was suspended from the ceiling and held a variety of pots and tongs of varying degrees and sizes.

A peg board had been anchored to one long wall and held dozens of bowls, measuring cups, couplings and icing tips. Fresh flowers sat in old, blue Mason jars on the back windowsill and yet another board—this one a dry erase with what he could only assume were orders—took up another wall. The space was small—narrow like the building—but had been maximized with state-of-the-art appliances and sheer ingenuity.

He was impressed and said as much. “This is a great setup,” he told her.

Seemingly pleased, she smiled and tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear. “It was a lot of trial and error in the beginning, but I think I’ve finally got everything organized in the most efficient manner.”

He took a bite of his cupcake and savored the spices against his tongue. It was moist and flavorful, and the icing was perfect—not too sweet, with just the right cream cheese to sugar ratio. Not everyone got that part right, but she’d mastered it.

“And you live upstairs?”

She nodded, swept an imaginary crumb from the table. “I do. I keep long hours and economically, it just made more sense.” A wry grin curled her lips. “I’ve got one mortgage as opposed to two.”

Definitely savvy. Sexy, smart and she could cook, too. He hoped to hell he discovered a flaw soon. A hairy mole or a snorting laugh. Anything to derail this horribly inconvenient attraction.

“And when did you notice that someone was stealing your butter? When did the Butter Bandit first strike?”

Looking adorably mortified, she blushed prettily, a wash of bright pink beneath creamy skin. “Three days ago,” she said. “At first I just thought one of the girls—possibly Livvie—had moved it from one part of the walk-in to the other. It’s a big space and I keep it well stocked. I only use organic products and everything has to be fresh, otherwise the quality isn’t up to par.”

He could certainly taste the difference. “But it hadn’t been moved?”

She shook her head. “No. And more than half of it had been taken.”

“And how much is half?”

She chewed the inside of her cheek, speculating. “Roughly thirty pounds.”

Jack felt his eyes widen. “Thirty pounds?”

She laughed, the sound husky and melodic. Definitely not a snorter, then. Damn.

“I typically use between sixty and seventy pounds of butter a week.” She gestured to five-gallon lidded buckets beneath the main work station. “That’s flour and sugar. And that smaller fridge against the wall? That one holds nothing but eggs.”

Good Lord. He’d had no idea. Of course, since he’d never made any sort of dessert in his life that didn’t come out of a box and require that he add only water, why would he?

But thirty pounds of butter? Who in the hell would steal thirty pounds of butter? To what purpose? For what possible use?

And they’d come back for more and attacked her for it.

“Who supplies your butter?” Jack wanted to know. It seemed like the best place to start. Perhaps there was something special about Mariette’s butter. Maybe it was made from goat’s milk or only harvested during the full moon. Maybe it was intentional butter, much like that Intentional Chocolate he’d gotten in a care package from his mother last year. Supposedly, it had been infused with good intentions by experienced meditators. Enchanted butter, he thought, tamping down the absurdity of the situation. He’d be damned if he knew.

But it was his job to find out, he reminded himself.

“Jefferson’s Dairy just north of Marietta,” she told him. “They furnish my eggs and milk, as well.”

Jack nodded and pushed up from his chair, determined to get started. The sooner he figured this out the better. Besides, one of the ladies had fired up a mixer and the whine was wreaking hell with his hearing aid. For the most part, the little miracle piece could almost make him forget that he needed it at all, but then a certain sound would set it off and he’d be reminded all over again. For the most part, he’d learned to cope with the “disability”—and knew that he’d gotten off easy in comparison to most other war-sustained injuries—but it was still jarring, nonetheless. An instant reminder of what he’d lost, an automatic, haunting flashback to Johnson’s desperate face. He gave himself a mental shake, forcing himself to focus on the task at hand.