Chapter Seven

 

 

J.T. just held her. She was a little taller than average, but she was thinly built. Her hair was long and strawberry blonde and she wore it in curls designed to drive a guy crazy. Perfect for male fingers to tangle in. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever known.

And it really pissed him off that someone had targeted her. He’d seen what could happen to young, beautiful, vulnerable women. He would never let that happen to her. He told her that he’d take care of her, keep her safe. That she would be ok with him. He wasn’t used to being the guy the beautiful girl turned to.

J.T. had no illusions. He wasn’t the romantic hero type, and he’d certainly worked with enough men at PAVAD who did fit that description. Her dad was one of those guys, his boss Mal Brockman definitely was.

J.T. knew he was just the geeky sidekick who supported the other guys. But there he was, holding the girl-in-jeopardy and knowing that he was the one determined to make sure she was protected at all costs.

No wonder Mal had been nearly crazy when the woman he’d loved had been threatened.

“Em… baby, it’ll be ok. I’ll make sure of it.” He buried one hand in the hair that curled wildly. He just held her until the tears stopped. At some point he moved them both until they were resting against the back of his mother’s old couch.

When she was finished crying she was cuddled on his lap and her arms were tight around his neck. Her chest was pressed against his.

J.T. forced his body to behave itself.

He’d never let himself be physically attracted to Emma, other than the occasional swallowing-his-own-tongue panic she induced in him occasionally. When she’d brush against him and he’d lose all sense of rationality.

He’d known nothing could ever come from it.

But having her draped across his lap was making his assurances of non-attraction he’d made to himself out to be the lies he strongly suspected they were. Hell, who was he kidding? He knew they were lies the moment he’d told himself.

Man, he wished he was the kind of guy who could just kiss a woman and damn the consequences. Instead, he forced himself to put space between them. “Let me show you to your room. Then we’ll get something to drink and we can watch a movie or something. We’ll pretend that you’re here for some other reason—pretend your room is being fumigated, or it’s a slumber-party.”

“We going to play truth or dare?” Her answer was watery, but there was a small smile there. He felt like he’d won the lottery, seeing that expression.

Emma wasn’t meant to be afraid. It wasn’t right. He hugged her, hard. J.T. needed to. He wouldn’t deny it. “I wouldn’t mind Spin the Bottle. Just because I never played…”

“Me, either. I never went to slumber parties.”

“I thought all girls did.”

“My mother was afraid if we saw how other families lived we’d tell about what she did to us. Or that we’d convince the other families to look for our father. At least, that’s my theory. We stuck pretty close to home.”

“Kelly never talks about it.” He knew her sister better—he saw Kelly almost every day when he wasn’t out of town with his team. He only saw Emma once or twice a month, if he was lucky.

They were both busy. He was out of town at least two or three nights each week, and he knew she was often working at the runaway shelter funded by a friend of theirs.

“My mom was worse with her. But I refuse to give her any more power by not acknowledging what she did to us. We don’t have anything to be ashamed of. It’s our mother who shouldn’t be able to look at herself in the mirror.”

Even he heard the real resentment in her voice. “Still, I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“It’s in the past. When I have children, I’m going to be like Ally. That woman rocks as a mother.”

“Yes, she does.” He couldn’t imagine Emma with another man. He always forced that idea out of his head whenever it tried to slip into his mind. But he loved watching her with her younger brothers and sisters. Especially the babies. She looked so perfect holding and cuddling the infants. It always made him stutter seeing that. “You will, too. You’re good with the twins.”

“They’re my brother and sister. How could I not be?”

“You don’t have to be.” A thought occurred to him. “You want children someday?”

“Yes. I do. I want a family, besides my dad and Ally. I have always wanted a family, a real one. I promised myself when I finished college that I would do that next.”

He smiled. Emma always planned everything. He knew that. And she was good at it, too.

Everyone knew the details of her kidnapping of Gracie. It had been gutsy, but it had worked.

And she’d orchestrated quite a few other events that he admired. Her father and step-mother’s wedding had been a biggie for her. But J.T. had been there—it had been beautiful.

And he knew she’d been helping his colleague Paige—who rented the apartment in Dan’s basement—with her own upcoming wedding.

Emma was a great planner.

“You can’t really plan a relationship, can you?”

“No. But I can hope.”

“So who is this guy that you want?”

She tensed against him. “Why?”

“So I can check him out. Make sure he deserves you.”