From Rags by

Pleased, Ollie smiled and nodded. “A few things though: If there’re any more notes or whatever, save them, they’re evidence – just in case it’s something that ever went to trial. If there’s ever a time they contact you wanting to meet up, the answer’s always no. If you’re ever cornered by them and need help, shout “Fire!” That always gets people’s attention and it’s a cry for help that’s rarely ignored. Change any patterns you have and maybe use a different route to get to the studio or anywhere else you regularly go. Try not to go about alone if you can help it. You might want to change your phone numbers as well.”

“Don’t you think that’s all a bit extreme?”

Ignoring that, he continued, “Lily and Tony have already offered for you to have their annexe again for as long as -”

Anna held up her hand. “No, she shouldn’t be alone. Jaxxon, you can stay with me.”

“Anna, no, it’s fine.” As much as she wasn’t looking forward to being coddled by Lily and Tony, she didn’t want to crowd the two lovebirds and listen to them shagging at all hours.

“How about this then: me and Warren won’t do our business unless we’re at his apartment?”

“Our business?” echoed Warren.

“She’s staying with me.” A hush fell over the room and all heads turned to look at him. Connor felt defensive though he couldn’t explain why.

This was obviously a day for shocks, in Jaxxon’s opinion. She knew why Connor was making that offer: he felt guilty because he was convinced Anita was responsible and that he had brought all this on her. Jaxxon also knew that what Connor was offering would cost him. Having grown up in an environment where he never had much to call his own, he was territorial about whatever was his. More than anything, he was territorial over his own personal space. He would never let anyone pass the threshold of his room when they were in foster care. He didn’t like to share that space that he had reserved as his own. He needed that distance, that special place where only he went, that place that nothing or no one could taint. She was still surprised he had taken her to his apartment that time. “Connor, it isn’t your fault that this happened. Even if it was Anita, the blame would be hers, not yours.”

“This isn’t about Anita, this is about you needing somewhere to stay.”

“And I can stay with Lily and Tony.”

“No, Jaxxon, please,” intervened Anna, “stay at mine. I’m not going to see you ages once you go on tour and -”

Connor shook his head. “If you’re going to be in Warren’s a lot then she’ll be on her own a lot, won’t she.”

Anna snorted at him. “You’ll be at the gym all the time so what’s the difference?”

“I’ll cut back on my training hours.” Again everyone’s eyes snapped onto him and again he felt defensive. “It’s only for a week until the tour starts.” He flippantly shrugged to give emphasis to the simplicity of it all. He could tell that Jaxx didn’t buy that he was truly comfortable with this. “If you stay anywhere else all I’m going to do is wonder where you are and if you’re alright, then I’ll end up harassing you by phoning you all the time and if you don’t answer my imagination will run away with me like yours did today – remember how you thought you’d crack up? This way I’ll know where you are and I’ll be there with you. Most of the time anyway.”

“I couldn’t ask you to cut back on your training.”

“You’re not. I’m saying I will. For once, Jaxx, don’t fight me.” For a long moment they just looked at each other. He knew Jaxx was searching his eyes for uncertainty or uneasiness. He was confident she would see neither because there was none to be found. Eventually she gave him one simple nod.

“When you said you had to pick up a few things, I didn’t think you meant that,” griped Connor as a huge Great Dane trotted inside his apartment and settled onto his sofa. Jaxx had insisted that before going with him to his place she needed to go shopping to stock up on some items and clothes, since most of hers had been destroyed. He’d wanted to go with her but she threatened to go stay at Tony’s if he was going to coddle her so, after whining about it, he relented.

Jaxxon stayed behind the threshold and shrugged. “Bronty’s mine, end of.” He threw her a pained look but she saw that there was humour there. Still she didn’t walk through the door. “Connor, are you sure about this? About me staying here for the week? I swear I won’t get cheesed off if -” He yanked on her wrist, bringing her crashing into his chest and swung the door shut. She let her shopping bags drop at her feet as his hands shaped her.

“Why wouldn’t I want this body in such easy reach for seven whole days?”

“You’ve just had it in easy reach for four consecutive days.”

“I’m greedy when it comes to you, you know that.” He regarded the bags on either side of her. “That all you got? I was expecting something like twelve bags and ten boxes.”

“I don’t like shopping. Anyway, I’ve got my suitcase of stuff from the holiday so I didn’t need all that much. Speaking of the suitcase…”

“It’s in the bedroom.” He swatted her arse before releasing her. “Unpack your stuff wherever you want.”

“Oh, guess what, I bought some lovely little pink decorative cushions and ornamental candles and some tubs of jasmine-scented pot pourii.” At the look of horror on his face she burst out laughing.

“That wasn’t even funny.” But he was already laughing with her.

“You’re so easy to wind up.”

He shook his head, smiling, as she headed to his room. He was surprised at himself. He had wondered if once Jaxx got here with her stuff and it all became real he might start regretting his decision or at least feel a bit uncomfortable. But no. Not even the sight of that huge dog dominating his sofa had him second guessing himself. He might have even been able to cope with decorative cushions for a week…then again maybe not.

It was while she was still unpacking that Dane arrived, paying him a surprise visit. Connor sighed at the smile that Dane was trying to hide on spotting Bronty. “Warren phoned you, didn’t he.”

“Why would Warren phone me?” But his smile broke free. “Alright, Warren phoned me and I had to see for myself if you really were being the Shining Knight.”

“I think it’s supposed to be ‘the Knight in Shining Armour’, isn’t it?” said Jaxxon as she caught the end of Dane’s sentence on her way into the kitchen where he and Connor were leaning against the long, black, marble breakfast bar.

“Hello there, Jaxx.”

Connor’s brows flew upwards. “When did I say you could call her that?”

“Oh, right, yeah. Jaxxon, sorry.” But he wasn’t sorry, and Connor knew it.

“I don’t suppose you know where Anita was last night…?”

“She went to bed about ten o’ clock and there wasn’t a murmur out of her ’til this morning.” Which meant that Dane was thinking the same as what he could see Connor was thinking right now: Anita could have gotten out of the house without them knowing and gone to Jaxxon’s apartment, but there was no knowing for sure.

“It wasn’t her,” said Jaxxon with surety. She didn’t know why she was so certain considering that her opinion was based purely on theories. Her gut told her it wasn’t Anita.

Connor threw her an impatient look. “Who else could it be?”

“Maybe she has a stalker,” said Dane.

Jaxxon tapped his temple. “Connor, think about it: would Anita do that to my apartment risking that you might ask me to stay with you? I seriously doubt it.”

He waved away the comment. “She’d never think I’d do that.”

“Well if she felt threatened enough by my being in your life to come to where I live and feed me some tripe about being pregnant then she must believe what the tabloids are printing about us being in some heavy relationship. If she believed that, then she could easily believe you might ask me to stay with you if my apartment was trashed. I doubt she’d risk it.”

Dane winced. “Actually, the main reason I came here was to pass on some news that I don’t think you’re going to sing and dance about.” He sighed. “Anita’s pregnant.”

Silence met that statement for a few seconds.

“You know this for sure?” asked Connor after he got over the sensation of his stomach plummeting.

“She did a pregnancy test yesterday morning while Niki stood outside the bathroom door. She never tried convincing us she was pregnant the way she did with Jaxxon. But then the past few mornings she was spewing her guts up so she did a test. I don’t have to tell you she’s ecstatic. She’s planning on coming to tell you tonight.”

Jaxx was going to leave now, wasn’t she? Connor wouldn’t blame her. As soon as he told Anita she still wouldn’t be getting a ring on her finger she’d be onto the tabloids, spreading news of the pregnancy, and then Jaxx was going to get caught up in the whirlwind that followed. He spared a glance at her and, yep, there she was putting on her black leather coat.

“Where you going?” asked Dane.

“There’s someone I need to have a little chat with.”

Connor’s head snapped up. “What?”

“Wait.” Dane placed himself in her path to the door. “Of course you want to tan her hide -”

“Oh I don’t want to tan her hide,” snapped Jaxxon. “I want to carve out her heart with a burning hot knife while she’s alive and screaming in agony, but that’s completely off the subject. As it happens, it’s not her I’m going to visit.”

“Then who?” asked Connor.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The last person Luke Winston expected to see when he opened his front door was Jaxxon Carter. As usual, her natural allure threw him for a second. There was nothing at all revealing about what she was wearing and yet she looked sexy as hell. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, willing back his ability to speak. “Er, hi.”

Jaxxon gave him a winning smile. It hadn’t been difficult to find him. When he had been trying to get her to go home with him that night at the bar he had told her about the house he owned and the name of the street. All she had had to do was look for the black Mercedes he had also told her about and she knew exactly where to find him. “I know this is out of the blue -”

Luke cleared his throat with a deliberate cough. “It’s fine. Come in.” He winced as it suddenly occurred to him that the inside wasn’t in great shape. The cleaner wasn’t due in until tomorrow. Those thoughts ended as she strutted passed; his eyes were glued to her arse. Just as he was closing the door a hand shoved against it, sending him backpedalling.

“Winston,” drawled Connor as he entered.

“Alright there mate,” greeted Dane in a deceptively friendly voice.

“Oh I brought them along,” announced Jaxxon before entering the living room. “Hope you don’t mind.”

Connor smiled at Luke. “Don’t worry, we’re not here to break bones. What reason would we have to do anything like that?” He gestured toward the living room. “After you.”

Choosing to go with the flow for now, or until he got near his mobile phone, Luke waltzed into the living room. Jaxxon, sitting cross-legged on the sofa, grinned at him. “What’s all this about?” he asked.

“Ah, I think he thought she’d come here to shag him,” said Dane as he and Connor covered the doorway of the room, blocking Luke’s path should his flight instinct kick in.

Connor shook his head. “Nah, I’m sure his intentions were totally honourable when he invited her inside.”

“Do you do a lot of jogging, Luke?” asked Jaxxon.

The question took him by surprise. His shrug was small. “Not a lot, no.”

“How often would you say you do?”

“What? I don’t know. I just do it sometimes if I feel like it.”

“And you felt like going jogging on that morning that we met, didn’t you?”

He swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

“Sorry again about Bronty growling at you like that. But as you said, he was just protecting me. Odd choice of words, wouldn’t you say?”

He laughed nervously. “You’re saying you thought I was going to hurt you?”

“You tell me.”

“A lone man jogging in the park has to have dodgy intentions these days, is that it?”

“I never saw you do much jogging. As I recall it, you just appeared out of the woods.”

“Because I’d just spent the past half hour jogging through those woods taking the short cut to the lake.”

“And yet, there wasn’t an ounce of sweat on you.” She gave her head a little shake and shrugged. “What a phenomenon.” She smiled as she assessed his posture. “You’re looking a little nervous. You were looking a little nervous that morning too. And that night in the bar. Funny that you should turn up in the same place like that. It wasn’t so funny that you did your best to get me drunk to bring me here.” Her brows rose. “Nothing to say to that? How about a subject change then? Let’s talk about Anita Donovan.”

He didn’t bother denying that he knew her. Why make the hole he was in even deeper? Besides, technically he hadn’t done anything wrong. Well maybe by Connor McKenzie’s rule book he had. “I haven’t seen her in a while.”