Colton 911: Temptation Undercover
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Jennifer Morey
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HarlequinChapter 1
While not the big-box elegance of a chain bookstore, Mostly Books had its own charm. Rows of new and old books spread across three-quarters of the space, and the coffee counter with three small tables and a quaint seating area took up the rest in the front. Ruby Duarte rang up an order for a gray-haired woman. Her coworker, Melvin, got busy making the iced latte. It was usually just the two of them working the morning shift.
Having taken care of five patrons, all but the gray-haired woman enjoying their coffee in the seating area and one of the tables, Ruby moved to the corner of the counter that faced the windows. She liked watching people passing by, going about their day. A woman and her young child walked along the sidewalk in shorts and summer tops. An early August day in a suburb of Chicago, it was shaping up to be hot and muggy.
The bell above the door jingled, and a man stepped inside. He was dark-haired and a touch over six feet tall—and vaguely resembled her ex, Kid Mercer. For an instant she stiffened, and her heart flew into a panic until she reminded herself that the man couldn’t be Kid because Kid was dead. Other than his height, the man’s similarity to Kid ended. Kid’s hair was lighter, and this man had brown eyes. Ruby had to admit her ex still haunted her.
She breathed through her nose relaxing her nerves. The man wasn’t Kid, but that didn’t mean one of his associates wouldn’t come searching for her. She was always on alert for that.
Ruby went to the register and took the man’s order. As she worked, the bell jingled again, and this time a familiar face entered. She was again struck by his good looks, a tall drink of Chris Hemsworth, dark blond hair a bit long and ragged, closely trimmed beard and hazel-green eyes magnetized her. He even walked like the sexy man. His mouth crooked up when he saw her. He came in almost every day before he started his shift at the Foxhole pub down the street.
So far they had only exchanged small talk and hadn’t really gotten to know each other. They talked weather and current news and things that happened while he bartended and the goings-on at the Mostly Books store. He seemed nice, though. She had a good vibe about him. That didn’t mean she’d let her guard down. She’d just escaped a dangerous relationship and wasn’t about to put herself through anything like that ever again. She’d had a good vibe about Kid, too, and look where that had gotten her.
“Hi,” he greeted in that deep voice that always tickled her soul.
“Hi yourself.”
Last time he had joked with her about his lack of a green thumb and that he’d bought a plant to reassure himself that he was capable of taking care of a living thing other than himself.
“How’s the plant?” she asked.
“Not dead.”
She smiled.
“I think it’s growing,” he added.
“That’s a good sign.”
She had asked him where he lived, and he said in an apartment above the Foxhole. The Foxhole was a fairly upscale pub, but she’d heard some questionable people frequented the place.
“Maybe I’m dad material after all,” he said.
Ruby thought of Maya, her five-year-old daughter, and wondered if she would ever want him to meet her. She was extremely protective of Maya, especially since her daughter had finally adjusted to living with her and not the girl’s father. Ruby had made great progress with her, and the therapy helped ease the tension in the girl. It broke her heart knowing what Maya must have gone through living with a criminal like Kid Mercer. Although Ruby had never given up trying to get her daughter back, Kid had too many dangerous men surrounding him, and she couldn’t get close enough to snatch her.
“Coffee?” she asked Damon.
As always, he ordered a plain black coffee.
“Working the lunch shift today?” she asked as she processed the transaction, keeping the talk neutral between them. He was earlier than usual.
“Actually, no. I have the day off,” he said, leaning an elbow on the higher counter next to the pay area.
“Oh, out on the town today?”
“Not exactly. What time do you get off work?”
Her heart did a little flop of excitement. Was he going to ask her out on a date?
“Two.”
“Would you like to go have ice cream with me?”
She looked outside at the steamy day. She did like ice cream, and she could get something with fudge. And being curious about this man who had come in so many times, she’d like to get to know him more. It was high time she had some fun, anyway, and she wasn’t due to pick up Maya until after class tonight.
“Okay.”
He grinned. “Great. I’ll be back at two. We can walk there, so you don’t have to worry about getting into a strange man’s car.”
He wasn’t exactly a stranger. She knew his name was Damon Jones, and he knew hers. They knew some details about each other but nothing too personal.
Melvin handed Damon his coffee. A fiftysomething man with kind blue eyes, Melvin was a humble soul who loved the outdoors. Ruby thought he should work for the forest service rather than serve coffee. He told her once he liked the social aspect of his job.
Damon took the cup and looked at Ruby. “See you soon.”
“Looking forward to it.” She smiled, and he grinned back flirtatiously.
She watched him leave the store, glad he didn’t see her check out his fit butt in those light blue jeans.
“He finally asked you out, huh?” Melvin asked.
Ruby became aware of him next to her, so caught up in her Chris Hemsworth–fantasy man that she hadn’t noticed.
“I guess so. If you call having ice cream a date,” she said.
“Oh, it’s a date all right, and about time. He’s taken it really slow with you. He’s been coming here, what—six months now?”
It had been about that long. Damon said he’d been working at the Foxhole pub for the last nine months. And he had taken things slow, something she appreciated. She didn’t know if he had done that for himself or for her. Ruby could be rather transparent, something that worked against her at times.
“Yes.”
“I was beginning to think he’d never ask,” Melvin said.
He’d been paying that much attention? Another customer arrived, and it was a while before the afternoon slowed. She hadn’t stopped thinking about Damon.
At two, she went to the bathroom to tidy herself up. When she emerged, Damon stood inside the entrance, waiting. He saw her and grinned. She smiled back, feeling so good about this. Damon was a good man. She just knew it. Things were finally looking up for her.
Damon had two primary objectives in his DEA undercover case. One, get to know Ruby Duarte, and two, infiltrate her ex-boyfriend’s criminal syndicate. Kid Mercer had frequented the Foxhole, holding meetings there with his followers. Damon sometimes heard them discuss problems with drug-trafficking routes. They hadn’t known he listened, of course. Mercer had been a dangerous man with many followers, more than Damon could count. His syndicate had been enormous in the Chicago underworld and still wasn’t completely dismantled.
Damon had spent the first three months watching Ruby, getting to know her routines and work and school schedules. Then he began going to the bookstore that also served as a coffee shop, initially not saying anything to her except thank you. Over the last four months, he had gradually worked up a friendly rapport with her. He had immediately sensed extreme guardedness in her, which is why he was taking things slow.
He had caught on to an underlying attraction to him, as attested by her occasional nervousness. She had begun flirting back with him after about two months. He had gotten her to reveal a little about herself, even though he already knew pretty much everything about her. She lived in the Woodlawn area, where he also had a house. She was twenty-six, and he was twenty-nine. She liked people-watching. She was going to nursing school. He avoided talking about past relationships because once he asked if she’d ever been married, and she had responded with a curt no. The subject clearly was sensitive for her.
Now she walked toward him, dark wavy hair down from her ponytail and light brown eyes twinkling with attraction.
He held the door for her, and they began walking down the street.
“How was the rest of your day?” he asked.
“Uneventful. It always slows down after around noon.”
Today he would stop carrying on the small talk. Early on he had joked with her, saying she must love books to be surrounded by them every day. She had said she did, but she was going to school to become a nurse. He had told her he worked as a bartender down the street.
“How is nursing school?” he asked.
“Good. I have a long way to go, but it’s good.”
“Where do you go?”
“Chicago State University. I had help in getting a grant, otherwise I don’t think I could have afforded it,” she said. “And I know I couldn’t do it without my mother. She watches Maya while I work and go to school.”
“Maya?” He knew about her daughter, but they hadn’t talked about her in his role as a bartender.
“My daughter.” Ruby beamed maternal love and pride. “She’s five.”
“An adorable age.”
Ruby laughed a little. “Most of the time. She can be a real pistol when she wants her way.”
They walked in silence a while before she asked, “Do you like kids?”
“I love kids. Hope to have some of my own someday.”
That seemed to please her, her eyes smiling and lips curved up slightly. “Maya is deaf.”
“Really?” He feigned surprise.
“Yes. Since she was two. I had to learn sign language. She does really well. She learns quickly. My smart girl.” She smiled.
“Can she read lips?” he asked.
“She’s getting better at that, but lip reading is challenging at best.”
“Does she get by okay?”
“She does fine. She is strong and makes friends with other kids. I don’t think it will hold her back in life.”
“Maybe she takes after her mother.”
She smiled again. “She might be a little tougher than me.”
Reaching the ice cream shop, Damon held the door for her again. They ordered and took their containers of peanut parfaits to a table. Damon sat across from Ruby, realizing he must be rusty with dating. He had been so involved with his work that he hadn’t dated in a long time, long before starting his undercover job here. At a loss for words being with this remarkable, beautiful woman, he ate a few bites, looking at her every once in a while, noting the details. How her eyes sparkled, her tan skin radiated her beauty. She was tall for a woman, too, probably five-eight. And slender.
“So, Mr. Jones, tell me about yourself. How’d you wind up bartending?”
“Damon. I thought it was cool after high school.”
“You never wanted to go to college?”
He really did not like lying to her. He decided to tell a partial truth. “I make a good living bartending, and I meet lots of people.”
She didn’t seem satisfied with his answer, as though she wondered if he had no aspirations in life. Did she not respect a man who held a job as a bartender?
“If you did go to college, what would you study?” she finally asked.
He debated telling her another partial truth. What would it hurt? He pretended to think a bit.
“Criminal justice.”
She smiled. “That’s a far cry from bartending. Why criminal justice?”
“When I was a kid I was fascinated by superheroes. Getting the bad guys.” That was the truth. Growing up with a father like his, he had wanted to be the opposite of what Erik Colton represented.
“Did your parents encourage you to go to college?” she asked.
“My mother died when I was seven, and my father wasn’t around much, so no, I wasn’t encouraged by them.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry. My father died when I was ten. It’s hard to lose a parent when you’re a kid.”
“Yes. My dad’s ex-wife raised me, and she did encourage me. She was a good mother to me.” He felt good about not lying. He would just avoid saying names.
“Do you have any brothers and sisters?” she asked.
“I have two older brothers, one is my half brother.” He’d refrain from going into detail about his newly discovered cousins and all the affairs that had produced other children. They were the children of his grandfather Dean’s twin sons from his first marriage. Damon’s grandmother, Carin, was always after a way to hoard money. Her latest scheme exposed a claim to the Dean Colton fortune. She had somehow produced a will that named Erik and Axel Colton rightful heirs. Damon had never felt close with her and, as with his father Erik, had a strained relationship with her. He had never felt a need to obtain wealth, just satisfaction in what he did with his life.
“Why wasn’t your dad around much?” Ruby asked.
He couldn’t say much about that without risking his undercover investigation. “Let’s just say he wasn’t dad material.”
“He had an affair with your mother?” Ruby asked.
That was a delicate question. “Yes.”
Ruby turned her attention back to her ice cream.
“What about you?” he asked. “Tell me about your family.”
She swallowed a bite and looked at him. “I have an older sister and brother. We stay in touch.”
“They aren’t from around here?” he asked.
“Wisconsin.”
“You’re a Wisconsin girl? What brought you to Chicago?”
“I moved here with my boyfriend,” she said, and got a faraway look.
She must be referring to Kid Mercer. “Is that your daughter’s father?”
She nodded, obviously not happy to be discussing this. Her eyes avoided his, and she seemed to withdraw.
“Is he involved in your daughter’s life?” he asked.
Ruby shook her head. “He died.”
“Oh. I’m sorry...”
“Don’t be.” She pushed her ice cream aside. “I should go pick up Maya.”
It was only three. She said earlier she had until five.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you don’t like talking about him,” Damon said.
“It’s all right. It is a mood-changer, though.” She smiled, albeit forced.
“Is your family still in Wisconsin?”
“My mother is here. She moved here shortly after I did, and that makes Chicago home.”
She must be close to her mother. Seeing she still wanted to leave, Damon didn’t try to keep her any longer. “I’d like to take you out again, maybe for dinner,” he said.
She smiled, although the residual distaste over bringing up her ex still lingered. Actually, distaste wasn’t the right word. Apprehension was more appropriate. She was afraid. As well she should be. Mercer was dead, but his band of criminals weren’t.
“I’d like that,” she said.
Damon was both elated and filled with guilt over misleading her the way he was. He had way too much interest in her. He had a job to do, and yet, this felt like a real date. When he should be pretending, he didn’t have to. Honestly, he felt attracted to her the moment he met her. He thought he could keep that under control, but now, being with her like this, he worried he wouldn’t be able to. What was worse? Pretending or not? Either way, the day would come when she’d learn his true identity. She’d be hurt. And so would he, if he allowed any feelings to grow.
He walked with her back down the street.
“Have you been following that story about the Coltons?” she asked.
She did so to make conversation, but she had no idea the bombshell she had just dropped on him. Luckily, the media didn’t focus on Damon and his brothers. They focused on Erik and Axel Colton, and Carin, of course. So far. Damon wasn’t in the limelight while he worked undercover, and his brothers were more concerned over the damage Carin would cause if her suit were successful. Damon himself was curious of his new cousins and had no interest in taking anything from them.
“No, not really,” he said.
“They have cousins they never knew about, and Dean Colton’s mistress from way back when is going after their inheritance.”
“Sounds like an evening soap opera,” he joked.
Ruby laughed. “Money attracts all sorts, apparently.”
“I’ll say.”
“Money was never that important to me. I was more interested in finding someone I could be happy with. I mean, everybody needs money to survive, and I don’t want to be the one who struggles to live comfortably, but it doesn’t have to be in excess.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” he said, having had similar thoughts about his father and grandmother. He felt a bond grow between them, as though they were magically linked in this moment. And the attraction he had so far been able to temper began to slip from his grasp.
They reached the bookstore, and Damon faced her.
“I’m glad we did this,” she said.
“Me, too.” The urge to kiss her overcame him. It should be a tactical move, but seeing her full lips and eyes that no longer held that haunted look, he’d do it for more than that. He couldn’t deny it. Managing to restrain himself, he kept it chaste and leaned in for a kiss on her cheek.
Getting a whiff of her sweet scent and being so close to her beautiful eyes, something changed in an instant. He could see the heat go into the way she looked up at him. He shifted just a bit and pressed his mouth to hers. Soft at first, the lightning-fast reaction in him and what he felt in her response made him kiss her harder.
Ruby slid her hand up his chest to the back of his neck and kissed him with equal fervor. A few seconds later, she began to withdraw.
Stepping back, she put her hand to her mouth and stared.
“Yeah,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting that, either.” What an understatement. They were explosive together. How was he supposed to conduct his investigation with that kind of knowledge?
After a few seconds, she lowered her hand and pointed toward the bookstore. “Now I really need to go.”
“Yeah. Good idea.” In a few more seconds he’d be doing his best to take her home with him.
“M-my car is parked in the back.”
“I’ll walk you there.” Although it was still afternoon, he didn’t like the idea of her alone in the back of the building, which was essentially an alley.
“No, no.” She briefly waved her hand. “I’ll be fine.” With her palm toward the sky and eyes going up, she said, “Daylight.”
He chuckled. “Sorry. Chivalry isn’t dead for me.” And it wasn’t. He just needed to meet a woman who appreciated that about him. Or, at the very least, recognition that it wasn’t an attempt to rob her of her independence but, rather, respect her for her exquisite beauty, inside and out.
Damon had given up trying to find that a long time ago, but it was still nice to fantasize.
“It is for most men,” she said, smiling.
Still grinning, he said, “Dinner tomorrow night?”
“How about Friday? I have class tomorrow night.”
“Okay. You want to give me your address so I can pick you up?”
“Pick me up here.”
She still didn’t trust him. He could deal with that. “Seven,” he said.
“Seven it is.”
She smiled and breathed a few deep breaths. He felt the same, still breathless. What would happen after dinner on Friday...?
Snapping out of that fantasy, he remembered Mercer’s followers. Ruby wasn’t aware of Damon’s knowledge of the danger she could be in.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” he said.
Her smile warmed, obviously touched by his show of what she perceived as chivalry.
They walked in silence with enticement charging the air. Too soon, they reached her car door. She faced him.
“Well,” she said, “until Friday.”
“Not unless I come get my coffee in the morning,” he said.
She breathed a short laugh, one full of sexual awareness.
Things would be a lot different now. Their acquaintance had gone from platonic to a wide-open road of possibilities.
“Thanks for walking me to my car.” Still smiling, she got into the driver’s seat and looked at him as she started the engine.
Damon stuffed his hands into his pockets and couldn’t subdue an answering grin, knowing it was flirtatious and revealed how good he felt because of her, because of being with her the way he had been this afternoon.
She lifted a hand in farewell, and he took his right hand out to answer. He stood there for several seconds, long after she disappeared down the street. Turmoil churned in his guts. These feelings were too strong after just one innocent date. He was undercover, and she was his primary target for gaining the upper hand on Mercer’s criminal followers. The two would surely clash into an unfavorable ending—for him and for Ruby.
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