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slightly. "You're in the room next door?"
    She nodded. "This place had plenty of vacancies, and being close seemed logical." Though now she wasn't so sure how logical it was, how well she'd sleep tonight knowing Jake with his bare chest and slate blue eyes was in bed one wall away. Because the room layout was flipped, she'd be sleeping with her head against the same wall as Jake.
    She didn't dare look at him for fear that absurd thought would show on her face, that she'd embarrass herself again.
    "Well," she said, "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
    "Tomorrow."
    ***
    Jake woke from a tantalizing, erotic dream about Rebecca Patterson.
    Damn! She'd kept him awake for a long time just with the thought of her sleeping in the next room, and now he was awake in the middle of the night because of her...awake with his body hard and ready.
    A faint ringing sounded, and he realized that must be what woke him. Rebecca's nightstand would be directly behind his, and her phone was ringing.
    He flipped on a bedside lamp and glanced at the clock. Two fifteen? That was an odd hour to get a phone call.
    He lay back and pulled the sheet over him, then kicked it off again.
    Why in hell did she have to come here?
    Why in hell did it have to bother him that she was here?
    He'd thought her attractive when she'd come to his office, but tonight, in jeans and a thin cotton dress instead of a business suit, she was incredibly provocative. That, combined with the setting, the small motel room, had kept him fighting the urge to take her into his arms and throw her across the bed that was so conveniently near.
    She'd felt something, too. He'd seen it in those changeable, indecipherable blue-green eyes. But there was so much more going on in those eyes than just desire, and that's what scared him.
    Rebecca Patterson needed him. She'd come right out and said it. I hired you because I need you . Not your services or your expertise , but I need you .
    A Freudian slip, of course. She hadn't meant it to come out that way. But it was true. Not that she needed him specifically. She just needed somebody. She'd lost everybody and she hadn't learned to cope on her own yet.
    No matter how much he might want her, he couldn't do that to her, couldn't let her mistake passion for something else, couldn't let her count on him for anything else when passion was all he had to give and all he wanted to take.
    "Jake!" A pounding came from outside. "Jake! Please let me in!"
    He bolted out of bed, snatched his jeans from the floor and yanked them on then flung open the door.
    Rebecca dashed in, closed and locked the door with trembling fingers and leaned against it. Her perfect hair was mussed. She was breathing hard, her high, rounded breasts rising and falling beneath the short, silky white gown that hid nothing.
    "Somebody threatened me." Her words and her expression—frightened but trying not to show it—pulled his libido up short.
    "What do you mean?"
    "I just got a phone call. Somebody told me I'd better go home and forget about finding my mother, that she's dead and if I keep looking, I'll end up that way, too."

 
     
    Chapter 4
     
    "Come sit down." Jake took Rebecca's arm, guiding her toward the chair while trying to ignore the silky softness of her skin and the allure of her nearly nude body.
    He switched on the light over the table and pulled out the single chair, offering it to her, resisting the impulse to take her in his arms and comfort her. She was far too appealing in that sexy getup. Only his concern for her obvious distress kept him from making a complete fool of himself.
    She made a movement to sit, then looked down at herself as if she could read his thoughts...or the lust in his eyes. That was probably pretty easy to do.
    "I'll get you...something," he mumbled, his gaze searching all around the room as though he expected a robe to materialize out of nowhere. But at least it gave him something to stare at besides her.
    "Do you...is this normal to get