Harlequin Holiday Collection Read online

  Clint e-mailed her twice. Once the morning after his return to the States to say Nola Atwood was singing like a canary on steroids. And then again the following day to let her know he wouldn’t be able to communicate for a while.

  She interpreted that to mean he was going undercover and worried nonstop that the vicious drug lord he was after might see through his disguise. The fear congealed into a hard lump she carried around for the rest of that week.

  It was still with her on New Year’s Eve, when the entire pub emptied and the patrons headed to Christ Church for the ringing of the bells. The owner, Mick, tried to shoo Sophie out with them.

  “Aren’t you going t’hear the bells?”

  “No, Mick. You go. I’ll mind the pub.”

  “Are y’sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  Sophie tried to numb the ache around her heart by keeping busy. As the chimes began to sound, faint and clear in the distance, she ducked behind the counter to set up rows of glasses for the patrons who would return eager to toast the New Year.

  “Auch, it’s a bloody fool I am,” she muttered as the pub door opened and a late customer entered on a blast of cold air and pealing bells. “What was I about, fallin’ in love with a great glom I’ll probably nivir see again?”

  She swiped her hands on her apron and turned to tend to the customer, only to find him grinning at her.

  “A great glom, am I?”

  Stunned, she gaped at him. If she’d passed him on the street, she wouldn’t have recognized him! A week’s worth of dark whiskers stubbled his cheeks and chin. His eyes were rimmed with red, and a vicious bruise mottled one side of his face, but triumph radiated from every bone in his body.

  “We got him, Sophie. Mendoza’s toast.”

  “Oh, Clint! Good on ya!”

  Laughter lit his eyes. “Not only that, my knowledge of prehistoric art so impressed my supervisors that I’ve been detailed to a special Interpol task force. I’ll be working here in Europe for at least as long as it takes you to finish your studies.”

  “Are y’serious!”

  “Absolutely.” He cocked his head as the bells rose to a riotous clamor. “Sounds like you’ve got about ten seconds to get yourself out from behind that bar so we can kiss in the New Year. Move it, woman!”

  Laughing, Sophie ducked under the counter, rounded the bar and fell into his arms.

  Evidence of Desire

  By Debra Webb

  Chapter One

  Six days ’til Christmas

  Kenner City and the Four Corners area where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona collided were a world away from Boston.

  Olivia Perez stared out the window of her tiny one-bedroom apartment overlooking the mountain ranges beyond the city. At five on a Monday morning Kenner City was barely awake. It was December 19 and the temperature was about forty degrees. The only snow she would likely see would be atop those mountains that framed her view.

  Nothing like home.

  What Olivia needed was a cup of coffee and a shower. After all, she was the one, much to her family’s dismay, who’d decided to leave Boston. After several years as a biochemist for a New England medical research company, she’d ditched her parents’ dream and headed west to work as a forensic scientist in law enforcement.

  But the last few days she’d begun to have her doubts about her decision. It was almost Christmas and she was lonely.

  What she needed was to put up a Christmas tree. That would surely lift her spirits. Today, after work. No more putting it off. She was going to dive in to the holiday spirit.

  Two hours later she parked her aging Volvo in the rear lot of the annex building on the outskirts of the city. The building wasn’t impressive—a halfhearted effort on the part of the powers-that-be at providing space for the new crime lab. Though the third-floor facilities were far from cutting-edge, Callie McBride, the lead scientist, had put together an outstanding team.

  Olivia was early as usual. Callie, who seemed to live in her office, was already on the job. The only other person who consistently arrived early was Jacob Webster, the most experienced member of the team. Olivia’s pulse skipped at the thought of those precious few minutes she would have alone with him before the rest of the lab personnel filtered in.

  It was silly. Truly it was. Olivia tucked her purse and jacket into her assigned locker and shouldered into her lab coat. She just couldn’t help herself. Maybe it was because she was so far from home. Or the fact that it was almost Christmas. Whatever. There was just something about the man that made her foolish heart react in a wholly uncharacteristic way.

  She took a breath and braced for the impact of seeing him. He was several years older than her thirty—forty or forty-one, maybe. His hair was still dark, no sign of gray. But it was his eyes that really got to her. She melted each time she had the pleasure of peering into those deep, rich brown eyes. He was tall, obviously worked out and he had that movie-star classic profile. Strong jaw, perfect nose. Olivia shook her head as she moved to her station. She had to stop this. The man scarcely knew she was alive.

  Still, she glanced across the lab to where he worked, fully engrossed—completely unaware of her presence.

  Maybe this silly crush had nothing to do with being so far from home or the holidays…maybe it was that ridiculous concept of a woman’s biological clock. After all, Olivia was barreling toward thirty-one. Never married, hardly any past relationships to speak of.

  Whatever it was, she had to regain her perspective. After two months, it was clear Jacob Webster wasn’t interested.

  “Olivia, I need a word with you.”

  Olivia jumped. Too preoccupied with adolescent adulation, she hadn’t realized Callie was right behind her. “Sure.” She offered her boss a bright smile, but the frustration etched across the other woman’s face dragged Olivia’s lips into a frown. “Is something wrong?”

  “Why don’t we talk in my office?”

  If Jacob had looked up from his work when she came in, he wasn’t looking now. Olivia was glad. Any time Callie McBride had that look things were far from good.

  In her office, Callie took a seat, as did Olivia, and got straight to the point. “I’m very pleased with your work so far. However, when I give you an assignment with a deadline, I expect that deadline to be met. At the very least, I expect to be kept abreast of any reason that can’t happen.”

  Confusion joined the anxiety twisting away at Olivia’s insides. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand. All my assignments have been completed. In exactly the time frame I was given.” This made no sense at all.

  Callie’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “I asked you to have the Tanner case results in by five yesterday, so that I would be prepared for my eight o’clock briefing this morning.”

  Now Olivia was utterly dumbfounded. “I e-mailed the complete file to you. Just as you instructed.”

  Callie gave her head a little shake. “I don’t have it. And I need it—” she glanced at the clock on the wall “—in less than half an hour.”

  Olivia stood. “There must have been a glitch in the e-mail system last night. I’ll resend it now. Or print you a hard copy.”

  “Just resend it.” Callie looked even more flustered as she shifted her attention to the mound of paperwork on her desk.

  Olivia hurried back to her station and logged on to her computer. A few clicks later and she searched her e-mail’s Sent box just to set her mind at ease. Then a new wave of confusion furrowed her brow. “That’s impossible.” She had sent the file. But her Sent box indicated otherwise.

  Olivia shook her head and prepared to resend. She clicked the necessary keys. Strange. File does not exist.

  Fear detonated in her chest. What the hell? She searched her system. Nothing.

  Hours of work gone. Poof!

  The file had vanished.

  Chapter Two

  Olivia scrambled through her notes. She had twenty-eight minutes to pull her results back together and e-mail
them to Callie for the second time. Her hands shook. She could do this.

  “Want some help?”

  Olivia’s heart thumped against her sternum. “Jacob.” Breathe! That made twice this morning that she’d been so caught up in her own thoughts that someone had sneaked up on her. Only this time it was him. Jacob. “I—” she cleared her throat of the lump lodged there “—I have to reorganize the results on the Tanner case and give it to Callie again.”

  He smiled.

  Her heart jolted again. He never smiled! Not for her, anyway.

  “I know. Callie asked me about them before you got here this morning. I assumed something had gone wrong.”

  Focus. “I e-mailed her the file, but it has…disappeared.”

  He moved in next to her, hip to hip. The air evacuated her lungs all over again. “Let’s try this.” His fingers flew across the keys. “What time did you send it?”

  Olivia blinked. Answer the question! “Four-fifteen, four-thirty yesterday.” She had to stop staring at his mouth…his jaw. And, God, he smelled so good. Something subtle and earthy. Very sexy. She wondered if he understood that the cologne or aftershave he selected was so enticing. He certainly didn’t give off any availability vibes.

  “Let’s take your system back to five p.m. yesterday. That should give us what we want.”

  She desperately needed to find that file. But right now what she wanted had nothing to do with her job. The realization startled Olivia. She’d worked hard to get through Harvard. She’d been at the top of her pay grade in her former position. All because she was focused, driven. How had meeting this man suddenly diverted a significant portion of her attention to…sex?

  “There it is.”

  Relief flooded her, washing away those forbidden desires. “I should have thought of that.” She’d been so shocked when Callie questioned her that she hadn’t been able to think straight. “Thank you, Jacob.” She knew the file had to be there somewhere. “I’ll run a virus check on my system. There must have been a glitch.”

  “Callie’s under a lot of pressure right now.” Those dark eyes studied Olivia closely as he spoke. “We all have to be on our toes.”

  Olivia was glad he returned to his station without a backward glance. Her face had gone beet red. The heat scalded her cheeks. She’d foolishly stood here, gawking at him in all her schoolgirl adoration, when he hadn’t been helping her—he’d been helping Callie.

  Olivia mentally added a bottle of wine to her list of things to pick up after work. She was definitely going to need it to shed the day’s stress.

  At five-thirty she shut down her system, locked up her station and gathered her things. Besides Jacob, she was the last to leave.

  The temperature had dropped significantly with the sinking sun. She glanced longingly at the snowcapped peaks in the distance as she trudged across the parking lot to her Volvo. In Boston, there would be lots of white stuff by now. Her family would be preparing for the big Christmas feast and exchanging of gifts.

  No looking back. Olivia had done the right thing. She’d needed to prove herself. To strike out on her own instead of always following the parental master plan. Each of her siblings had done exactly that. She was the youngest and the first to go after her own dreams.

  “Not such an easy task,” she muttered as she climbed into her car. She shoved the key into the ignition and gave it a turn. Something under the hood growled then sputtered to a grinding halt.

  She gave it another try. That weird sound again. The engine failed to crank even after a third attempt.

  She dropped her head against the headrest and blew out a weary breath. What was the name of that mechanic shop one of her coworkers had said he’d used?

  Max’s or Lex’s… She didn’t have a clue.

  Olivia started to dig through her purse in the hopes of finding a note to herself with the name and number when Jacob exited the building.

  She tried starting the car once more. Nada. She gazed at the man walking toward his SUV.

  Maybe he wouldn’t mind rescuing her twice in one day.

  Chapter Three

  Jacob hesitated before unlocking his SUV. He was no mechanic, but even he recognized the grinding noise coming from Olivia’s Volvo as a problem with the starter.

  He surveyed the parking lot. Empty. Other than the evening-shift security, the place was completely deserted. He sighed. It wasn’t that he minded helping out a colleague—or a stranger for that matter. The problem was that every time he got close to Olivia Perez, he regretted it. Take this morning, for example. He’d known she was panicked. One look at her face had told him she was in crisis. So he’d given her a hand. He enjoyed the sweet sound of her voice, the way she stared at him with such admiration. What man wouldn’t be flattered…tempted?

  But the next hour afterward had been spent attempting in vain to refocus on his work. He was forty years old and not a single woman he’d ever known had possessed the ability to distract him to this degree.

  From the moment she’d joined the lab’s staff, he’d been struggling with keeping his mind off her. He’d gotten his heart tanked back in Durango, and he’d promised himself then that it would never happen again. Who needed a wife or children? He had his work.

  That had been enough.

  Until now.

  What was it about this young woman that distracted him so?

  “Jacob! Hey!”

  He watched as she dashed across the parking lot in his direction. Dark hair flying behind her like a cape of silk. Hazel eyes wide with worry. Already his body had reacted to her distress.

  Or, more likely, her coming nearer.

  “Sounds like your starter has gone bad on you.” He could make a call to a mechanic he used. But the chances of getting the automobile fixed tonight were slim to none. She would need a ride home.

  He could give her a lift. It was the right thing to do. Truth was, being close to her for a few minutes more…alone…wouldn’t be a bad thing.

  “Do you know a good mechanic?” She bit her lip, staring up at him hopefully.

  Jacob fished in his jacket pocket for his cell phone. “I haven’t had any complaints with the guy I use. I’ll give him a call.”

  “Thank you.” The worry lifted from her face. “I owe you big-time for this morning. Now this. You’re a real lifesaver.”

  “Thanks is quite enough,” he said as he pulled up the number of the shop from his contact list.

  A few minutes on the phone with the mechanic and a tow truck was on its way.

  “So I just leave the keys under the floor mat?” she confirmed.

  He nodded. “Security will let the tow truck into the lot. You’ll get a call sometime tomorrow about when your car is ready for pickup.”

  “Great.” She grabbed her purse and closed the car door. “It’s very sweet of you to drive me home.”

  She chatted away as they loaded into his SUV and headed for town. He got the distinct impression she was nervous. He’d never known her to talk so incessantly about nothing at all. Usually she was quiet and focused on her work. He acknowledged once more how very much he enjoyed her voice. As well as her brilliance.

  “Oh, darn,” she said suddenly.

  He glanced at her as he braked for an intersection. “Did you forget something?” Being alone with her was playing havoc with his ability to breathe normally. But this wasn’t smart. He wasn’t the type of man to evoke desire in a young, beautiful woman like Olivia. Hadn’t he learned that lesson already? She admired him, yes. But he doubted her feelings went beyond that.

  She turned and stared back at the store they’d just passed. “I’d planned to pick up a Christmas tree this evening.” She sighed. “It’s only a few days before Christmas and I…” She turned to him and smiled. “This is my first Christmas alone. I guess I’m a little homesick.”

  He took the next right and doubled back. How could he resist? She’d sounded so forlorn.

  “You didn’t have to do that.” She beamed at him
. “I really do appreciate it, though.”

  “No problem.”

  Yes, he argued silently. It was a problem.

  She was a problem.

  The last thing he wanted to do was set himself up for a fall.

  Unfortunately, it felt like he was already falling.

  Chapter Four

  “Maybe it would look better over here.” Olivia hurried to move the chair from the corner.

  Jacob patiently relocated the six-foot tree and its stand to the corner she’d cleared.

  She smiled. “That’s perfect.” The scent of evergreen permeated her tiny apartment, and just seeing the naked tree standing proudly next to the window made her heart glad.

  Not to mention the handsome man so generously lending his aid.

  She was suddenly starving. It was nearly eight o’clock. Good grief! She hadn’t even offered him anything to drink. “I didn’t realize the time. I absolutely have to make you dinner.” She made a quick mental scan of the offerings in her pantry.

  He held up both hands as if pushing away the idea. “That’s not necessary.”

  “I insist.” She’d had to ask twice for his coat when they’d first arrived before he’d grudgingly shed it. Enticing him to stay for dinner would likely take an act of Congress. “I won’t be able to sleep tonight if you don’t let me do something to make up for your patience and kindness.” Before he could say no, she added, “You really went above and beyond the call. Please. It’s just dinner.”

  He plowed his hand through his hair. “I suppose that would be…okay.”

  She couldn’t hold back a grin of victory. “Great.”

  In the kitchen, she checked her fridge. Thank God. She had salad dressing. A quick salad with last night’s leftover chicken would be perfect. She made coffee and poured her guest a cup. “Cream? Sugar?”