"Yes," she said, and because the sun was setting the sea on fire, Zach led her back to the patio, undressed her, and they made love with a sweetness that was beyond anything either of them had ever known before.
The change of jobs, cities and living s.p.a.ces turned out to be easy.
Jaimie"s old firm had an opening in their New York office. They offered it to her with an increase in pay. Even her landlord, normally the worst sort of grump, said she could end her lease without penalty because, it turned out, he wanted her flat for his mother.
Who knew that even grumpy landlords had mothers?
She put her furniture, dishes, all her stuff in storage. All she needed were her computer and a couple of suitcases, and she was ready.
Zach phoned his driver, quietly arranged to have John fly to Washington, pick up his Porsche and drive it back to Manhattan. He couldn"t let Jaimie know he"d had the car with him; she"d have asked why he"d rented the Prius.
It was sleight of hand, and it reminded him that she still didn"t know the truth, but he a.s.sured himself that he would tell it to her, and soon.
She moved into Zach"s amazing penthouse on a Thursday. And, the next evening, she finally faced the one thing she had yet to do.
Call her sisters. Her brothers, too, but Emily and Lissa first. None of them knew what she"d done, that she"d left Washington, quit her job, gone back to accounting, moved to New York...
Moved in with a man she"d never told them about.
It was a lot to have done without ever saying anything to any of them.
She knew that her brothers would want all the details. She was a grown woman, but they still thought of her, of all their sisters, as girls. There were times it drove the three of them nuts, but they loved their big brothers and they knew that being protective was how Jacob, Caleb and Travis showed that they loved them in return.
The timing was perfect, because Zacharias phoned to say he"d be late.
"Put a bottle of champagne in the fridge," he said. "We"re going to celebrate."
"Have you forgotten? We celebrated last night."
His laughter came through the phone, low and s.e.xy enough to make her wish he were there with her.
"I haven"t forgotten a thing, babe. In fact, I"m planning an instant replay."
She smiled. "How late will you be?"
"I"ll be there as fast as I can."
"You"d better."
He laughed. "Hold that thought."
Zach ended the call.
He was the luckiest man on the planet. And tonight, they"d have a lot to celebrate.
Steven Young was about to be history.
His guys had found him. They"d tailed him for days. His man, Jerry, had just called with the details.
Two nights ago, Bert, one of Zach"s guys, had followed Young to the townhouse where Jaimie had lived. Young had stood in the shadows, staring at the house for hours.
Bert had put in a call to the local cops. There were no charges to bring against Young but the cops had been alerted to the situation through Zach"s contacts. They"d showed up, four cars, four uniforms, ha.s.sled Young and run him off.
Yesterday, Jerry had followed Young to what had been Jaimie"s office, where he"d demanded to know her whereabouts.
"Young made threats. He"d done the same thing before, when you were out of the country. That time, security threw him out. This time things were worse. Young beat up the owner, some dude named Bengs. They called the cops, but Young got away."
Zach had pumped his fist in the air. Trespa.s.s or what a smart prosecutor could make stand as trespa.s.s. a.s.sault. Things were adding up.
"There"s more," Jerry said. "During the night, he broke into the manager"s place. The woman who runs Stafford and Bengs? She"s maybe fifty-five, sixty. She"s the one who"d called the cops the day before. So Carl-who was covering Young from midnight to eight-called the precinct. He ended up breaking protocol. He went in himself when he heard the woman screaming." His voice had flattened. "Young had beaten the s.h.i.t out of her, Zach, and disappeared into the wild blue yonder. She"s in the hospital. Concussion. Fractured jaw. Fractured pelvis."
"He"s finished," Zach said, his voice as flat as Jerry"s.
"Oh, yeah. He"s done. Not all the high-powered connections in the world can get him out of this."
The news was everything Zach had hoped for.
Delivering it to Jaimie was everything he feared.
First things first. He had calls to make. To people he knew in D.C. The contacts he"d spoken with at the start of all this. He"d call Caleb, too, put his mind at rest, but first...
Zach rubbed his hands over his face.
First, he was going home. To Jaimie. Tell her everything.
Tell her the only thing that mattered, the thing it had taken him until now to admit.
He would tell her that he loved her.
Normally, the Wilde sisters connected via Skype at least once a month, more than that when something was important. Well, this was important-but Skype wasn"t going to work.
Emily and Marco, her fiance, were in Rome. Jaimie checked her watch, did a little fast calculating and decided she didn"t want to wake her sister in the middle of the night.
She"d call Lissa on her cell. It was faster.
Lissa"s phone rang four times. Jaimie sighed, was about to disconnect when she heard Lissa say, "Jaimie?"
Jaimie sank down on one of the kitchen stools in Zach"s condo.
"I almost gave up," she said. "I figured I was going to get your voice mail."
"How are you?" Lisa said. "We haven"t talked to each other in years!"
"Weeks," Jaimie said.
"Seems longer." Lissa sighed. "My fault as much as yours. I, uh, I changed jobs."
"Me, too."
"Locations, too."
"You"re not in Hollywood?"
"Well, I am. And I"m not. I was working in this restaurant, remember?"
"Sous chef. Right. In one of those the-house-salad-costs-fifty-bucks watering holes."
Lissa bit her lip. That wasn"t exactly accurate, but this wasn"t the time to try to explain it.
"Right," she said briskly. "So the thing is, I got the chance to, uh, to kind of go on location."
"With a movie crew?"
"Yes. No. It"s complicated. The main thing is... Heck. What did you say? You changed jobs, too?"
Jaimie took a deep breath. "I"m back in accounting."
"Is that good?"
"It"s very good. I wasn"t cut out to be in real estate." She hesitated. "And I moved. I"m living in Manhattan."
"New job, new digs. What kind of apartment? Better than that hole in the wall Emily lived in. No wonder she wouldn"t ever let us see it."
Jaimie licked her lips. This was the hard part.
"I"m living on Fifty- Seventh and Fifth."
Lissa chuckled. "Right. And I"m living in Malibu."
"I"m serious, Liss." Pause. Breathe. Go for it. "I met somebody."
"You met-"
"A man. He"s-he"s amazing. He"s wonderful. And-and he asked me to live with him. And I am."
Silence.
"Liss? Did you hear me?"
"I heard. I"m just trying to figure out what to say. I thought you gave up men after you caught Donny Holloway making out with that redhead under the stands after that football game."
"Will you please be serious? That was high school. And I didn"t give up men. I just got busy with school, with prepping for the CPA exam, with my career-"
"Who is he?"
"I told you. He"s wonderful. I can"t wait until you meet him. I"m figuring on bringing him with me to Emily"s wedding in, what, two weeks?"
"What does he do?"
"He used to be a soldier."
Lissa laughed. "The boys will love him."
"And maybe some kind of, you know, spook. Like Caleb."
"Maybe?"
"He doesn"t talk about it much."
"Exactly like Caleb. Our brothers are liable to make him an honorary Wilde." Lissa"s voice softened. "Are you in love with him, James?"
Jaimie shut her eyes, opened them again.
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"It"s-it"s too soon." It wasn"t, and she knew it. She was in love with her Zacharias, deeply in love, but she was old-fashioned enough to want to hear him say it first. "The thing of it is, I"m happy."
"Ah. Well, I"m happy for you. You sound, you know, better than when we talked at Thanksgiving."
"You mean, when I told you about that man."
"The stalker. Yes."
Jaimie nodded as if her sister were in the room and could see her. "I haven"t even thought about him. I certainly haven"t seen him. I told Zacharias all about Steven Young and he said he would protect-"
"Who?" Lissa said, her voice rising. "Who?"
"Young. Steven Young. That"s the name of the man who-"
"Not him. The other one. Zacharias. Who the h.e.l.l is he?"
"Zacharias Castelianos. My-my-the man I"m living with. I told him about what was happening and he said he would protect me and-"
"Holy s.h.i.t, James! You"re living with Zach Castelianos?"
Jaimie stiffened. "You know him?"
"Ex-Marine. Ex-Special Ops. Ex-spook. Runs a high-tech security firm. d.a.m.n right, I know him. Or I know of him. Jesus H. Christ, James-"
"Stop cursing. And tell me what you"re talking about. How could you possibly know my Zacharias?"
"I don"t know him. I know of him. And he"s not "your" Zacharias. He"s Caleb"s."